Roller-Coaster: Europe 1950 – 2017

In this second volume of his masterly history of 20th century Europe, the distinguished historian Ian Kershaw looks at the continent from 1950 to the present. As Europe struggles to recover from the ravages of the Second World War, it is also divided by the deepening Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Kershaw shows how the division affected peoples from the Atlantic to the Urals but also illuminates how economic progress and ideas of liberty bridged that divide. With his acute eye for the telling detail and a sure grasp on the great sweep of history, his telling of the latest chapter in the long history of a continent that is no longer at the centre of the world is a fascinating and engrossing read.