{"title":"Books by Geert Mak","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781529113044","title":"The Dream of Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Mak is the history teacher everyone should have had'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the internationally acclaimed \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn Europe\u003c\/i\u003e, a stunning history of our present, examining the first two decades of this most fragile and fraught new millennium.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow did the great European dream turn sour? And where do we go from here?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this illuminating book, Geert Mak - one of Europe's best-loved commentators - charts the seismic events that have shaped people's lives over the past twenty years. He moves through the rocky expansion of the EU, the aftermath of 9\/11 and terrorist attacks across Europe, the 2008 financial crash and the euro crisis, and on to the rise of right-wing populism and Brexit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike no other, Mak blends history, politics and culture with the stories and experiences of the many Europeans he meets on his travels. He brings this continent to life, and asks: what role does Europe now play, and how might we face our fresh challenges together?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A powerful, humane and serious mind'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Mak is a truly cosmopolitan chronicler' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128664129714,"sku":"9781529113044","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529113044.jpg?v=1786022694"},{"product_id":"9781860467899","title":"Amsterdam","description":"\u003cp\u003eA magnet for trade and travellers from all over the world, stylish, cosmopolitan Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture and legendary beauty, but also of civil wars, bloody religious purges, and the tragedy of Anne Frank. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this fascinating examination of the city's soul, part history, part travel guide, Geert Mak imaginatively recreates the lives of the early Amsterdammers, and traces Amsterdam's progress from waterlogged settlement to a major financial centre and thriving modern metropolis\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43399258931378,"sku":"9781860467899","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781860467899_6c1bf849-6cba-4728-812c-fbf134f6df3c.jpg?v=1786034481"},{"product_id":"9780099546863","title":"An Island in Time","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fascinating account from a highly acclaimed writer of the life and charming inhabitants of a typical countryside village, and how it must adapt and change in order to survive in the modern world\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe countryside is in crisis. The shops are closing down in the villages, there is no school for miles around and, when they grow up, the few remaining children will escape to a less arduous life in the city. The village as we have known it for centuries must adapt to survive, but what will be lost in the process? In this book Geert Mak returns to the small Netherlands village of his childhood, Jorwerd (pop. 330 and falling), and meets the present-day Jorwerders: a stubborn, stoic people for whom the flat, windswept landscape has been a source of livelihood for generations, but is now rarely more than a tourist attraction. He has tea with the butcher's wife, drops in on the pub for a beer, and recounts the stirring story of Old Peet, a farmhand who was born, lived, and died in Jorwerd. Such men are an extinct species in the new free-market Europe and, with his passing, the village he lived in moved a step along the road of terminal decline. Jorwerd is a paradigm for the changing face of the countryside around the world, but Mak discovers that Jorward posesses, despite its travails, a neighborliness and sense of community that no longer exist in urban life, while ancient families struggle to preserve their long-established way of life in a world obsessed with money and profit.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223403213173,"sku":"9780099546863","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099546863_bea41d9d-1bfb-4109-9319-3d07365a9e75.jpg?v=1786011581"},{"product_id":"9780099578734","title":"In America","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1960 John Steinbeck and his dog Charley set out in their green pickup truck to rediscover the soul of America, visiting small towns and cities from New York to New Orleans.The trip became \u003ci\u003eTravels With Charley\u003c\/i\u003e, one of his best-loved books.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHalf a century on, Geert Mak sets off from Steinbeck’s home. Mile after mile, as he retraces Steinbeck’s footsteps through the potato fields of Maine to the endless prairies of the Midwest and stumbles across glistening suburbs and boarded-up stores, Mak searches for the roots of America and what remains of the world Steinbeck describes. How has America changed in the last fifty years; what remains of the American dream; and what do Europe and America now have in common?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223900369269,"sku":"9780099578734","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099578734_0ceec597-3f1e-491a-9e14-3b81ea31ea33.jpg?v=1786011257"},{"product_id":"9780099516736","title":"In Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003eGeert Mak spent the year 1999 criss-crossing the continent, tracing the history of Europe from Verdun to Berlin, St Petersburg to Auschwitz, Kiev to Srebrenica. He set off in search of evidence and witnesses, looking to define the condition of Europe at the verge of a new millennium. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe result is mesmerising: Mak's rare double talent as a sharp-eyed journalist and a hugely imaginative historian makes \u003ci\u003eIn Europe \u003c\/i\u003ea dazzling account of that journey, full of diaries, newspaper reports and memoirs, and the voices of prominent figures and unknown players; from the grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Adriana Warno in Poland, with her holiday job at the gates of the camp at Birkenau.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Mak is above all an observer. He describes what he sees at places that have become Europe's well-springs of memory, where history is written into the landscape. At Ypres he hears the blast of munitions from the Great War that are still detonated twice a day. In Warsaw he finds the point where the tram rails that led to the Jewish ghetto come to a dead end in a city park. And in an abandoned crèche near Chernobyl, where tiny pairs of shoes still stand in neat rows, he is transported back to the moment time stood still in the dying days of the Soviet Union.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMak combines the larger story of twentieth-century Europe with details that suddenly give it a face, a taste and a smell. His unique approach makes the reader an eyewitness to his own half-forgotten past, full of unknown peculiarities, sudden insights and touching encounters. \u003ci\u003eIn Europe\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterpiece; it reads like the epic novel of the continent's most extraordinary century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311552246133,"sku":"9780099516736","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099516736_2af6a0ee-76d7-4ed8-92f7-c1d692f542b4.jpg?v=1786010996"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-geert-mak.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}