Genre: Nonfiction—History, Art History, & Travel
Completed: 30 June 2014
Summary & Review:
Television host and travel guide Rick Steves offers an overview of Europe’s history, art, and major sights all presented to help travelers in Europe understand what they are seeing, enjoy more of the sights, and not miss the highlights. Beginning with the roots of European culture in ancient Egypt, the history of European culture is traced through ancient Greece, Rome, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and finally the wars of the 20th Century. Along the way, Steves introduces key figures in art, music, science, and religion.
I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, at least the first 350 pages or so. Here, Steves does what he does best. He guides the reader through Europe ensuring the all the best sights, paintings, and experiences are covered and offers tips to experience those yourself on your travels. Near the end of the book, however, the authors included a chapter on Europe today which was obnoxiously preachy and progressively political. Even in the very last section of the book, an art appreciation chapter, they couldn’t let go of their ridiculous politics. While writing about color theory they were listing things associated with the color red, including “passion, action, intensity, states that hate gay marriage…” (emphasis added). This, and many other comments like it, were completely unnecessary, immature, and unprofessional. To so obviously not understand the viewpoint of those who disagree with gay marriage and then to demonize those who disagree with it as “hating” it is pathetic. Personally, I don’t understand their need to so repeatedly assault the reader with their personal politics in a book about history, art, and culture. It took away immensely from what began as a quality, fun book.
While this likely will be the only book authored by Rick Steves on this list, that doesn’t reflect how many of his books I have been reading the past year. Since we moved to Bavaria last summer, a large chunk of my reading time has been taken up studying Rick Steves guidebooks to France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Croatia & Slovenia, Austria, Eastern Europe, etc.
Rating: 5.0
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