Perilous times

I don't always remember how a book gets added to either a specific reading list or to my general reading list, but I know with this one.

The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914, by Philipp Blom

I had seen an article mentioning the book. This was in 2013, and the book was published in 2008, so I don't think it was a regular review. However, there must have been buzz about it for some reason. I know because I was out with my sisters and a friend of theirs and the friend was talking about the time period, and how it felt like everything was on the edge of disaster.

That caused me to go back and find the article, both to send her a link to it and to find the name of the book to look into it myself. Then it was kind of a disappointment.

My former government teacher gave it a really good review, and I respect that. Part of my feeling was that it didn't really connect the dots and make a case for itself. As it covered various changes that were going on in society, they all felt separate, and I don't think they were. However, I also felt like I needed to know more about some of the topics, so maybe if you are already well-informed on this time period, then this book ties it together really nicely.

It is also possible that I was caught up so much in individual issues and problems that a focus on the zeitgeist was not what I was looking for. (Though I still feel the zeitgeist is precisely what was not captured. Maybe there were too many changes for there to have been one.)

I don't rule out learning more things and then going back to this book. That could end up being very helpful.

And I cannot rule out us currently being on the brink of terrible things either. Perhaps the book will resonate more now.