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  • In Europe's Shadow

  • Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond
  • Written by: Robert D. Kaplan
  • Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
  • Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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In Europe's Shadow

Written by: Robert D. Kaplan
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
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Publisher's Summary

In Bucharest, Romania's capital, Kaplan discovered that few Westerners were reporting on the country - one of the darkest corners of Europe during the Cold War. In an intense and cinematic travelogue, Kaplan explores the history and culture of the only country in the West where the leading intellectuals have been right-wing rather than left-wing; a country that gave rise to the dictator Ion Antonescu, Hitler's chief foreign accomplice during WWII; a country where the Latin West mixes with the Greek East, producing a fascinating fusion of cultures.

In Europe's Shadow is a deep and vivid immersion into one place, a country that is a metaphor for Europe's current challenge in confronting Vladimir Putin's Russia. With the brilliant, insightful Kaplan as our narrator and eyewitness, this book is a shorthand masterpiece about imperialism and a country critical to our understanding of the last century in Europe.

Robert D. Kaplan is the author of 16 books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including The Revenge of Geography, Monsoon, Balkan Ghosts, and Warrior Politics. He has been a foreign correspondent for The Atlantic for over three decades. In 2011, Foreign Policy magazine named Kaplan among the world's "100 Top Global Thinkers".

©2016 Robert D. Kaplan. Random House, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

What listeners say about In Europe's Shadow

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Eastern Europe and its Complexity

Romania has a tragic, beautiful & complicated past. Being wedged next to Russia. It has been a constantl struggle to fight off invaders mixed with different ethnicities & communism. The author gives us great insight into the differences & similarities of Eastern European Heritage now & then.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narcist intro and and some revisionism

The audio is of poor quality, you can tell it's been edited with clips inserted in the middle of passages.
The author starts with a self indulgent 2h long chapter about his visits of Romania. Then he sprinkles in some revisionism based mostly on what seems like secondary sources.

The book is all right as a starting point for modern Romanian history but don't let it color your perceptions. Would buy again.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Thorough account of a misunderstood part of the world; distractingly over-dramatic reading style.

As a fan of Robert Kaplan, I was interested in his well-researched history of Romania, his personal impressions of his several visits and his analysis of the links with other nations and political ideologies. The complex interactions between Eastern European countries through the ages provide a fascinating background for modern-day Romania’s fragile place in the middle of turbulent geopolitics.
However, the overdramatized reading style, the misapplied emphasis on key words and phrases and the grating embellishments for foreign names and terms made it difficult to listen to the text and to follow the flow of the narrative. Most distracting.
Book - 10
Audio quality - 1

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