Free World

TGA holds up a mirror to Britain today to show us what the British have become as a globalized society.

At the start of the 21st century, the world plunged into crisis. What began as an attack on the West by Osama bin Laden soon became a dramatic confrontation between Europe and America. Britain has found itself painfully split, because it stands with one foot across the Atlantic and the other across the Channel. The English, in particular, are hopelessly divided between a Right that argues our place is with America, not Europe, and a Left that claims the opposite. This is today's English civil war. Both sides tell us we must choose. In this powerful new work Timothy Garton Ash, one of our leading political writers, explains why we cannot, need not and must not choose between Europe and America.

The Shortest Introduction to the World's Oldest and Newest Continent

Europe in 7 1/2 Chapters

As the old world order crumbles, it has never been more important to understand the rich and fascinating story of Europe – the smallest and largest, oldest and newest continent. But what is Europe? 
 
Drawing on a lifetime of study, travel and writing about Europe, Timothy Garton Ash tells its epic story in 160 pages fizzing with anecdote and expertise. 
 
Europe is vast – its coastline is longer than the circumference of the Earth – and intricate: you can have breakfast in Germany, coffee in the Netherlands and lunch in Belgium. It invented democracy but has fought nearly 3,000 recorded wars in the last millennium. And its past is present everywhere: the borders of vanished empires still show up in election results. 
 
Brilliantly accessible yet profound, Europe in 7 ½ Chapters is an exhilarating journey through geography, history and culture – from wars and revolutions to food and football – which shows how Europe came to be as it is today: more united and more divided than ever. Can it still flourish in this dangerous new world and even shape it for the better? 
 
Whether you're looking for an introduction to the continent’s breathtaking past or the perfect holiday read, you should have Europe in 7½ Chapters in your pocket – it is witty, surprising and always entertaining.

Timothy Garton Ash is Professor of European Studies Emeritus at the University of Oxford and a columnist for the Guardian. He has lived and breathed European politics and culture for over fifty years, witnessing some of the most dramatic scenes in its history, meeting many of its key players and analysing how life has evolved for ordinary Europeans across the breadth of the continent. 
 
He has won many prizes for his eleven previous books, including The File, his riveting autobiographical account of investigating the contents of his Stasi file after the fall of East Germany. His last book, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, has appeared in twenty-three European languages.

Timothy Garton Ash

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir - drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

Readers could hardly wish for a wiser guide. Over 40 years, Garton Ash has both watched from the stands and played on the pitch in the arena of European change

Outstanding ... Homelands is an elegantly written piece of contemporary history by one of Britain's leading public intellectuals

At once accessible, engaging and erudite, Homelands is an extraordinary accomplishment, much like the author's life; it is a heartfelt call to arms

Personal memories matter in Europe, where the remembrance of recent horrors has shaped modern politics ... Homelands is a trip down memory lane on a continental scale ... insightful [and] downright chilling, too

We know there are Germans, Italians, Spaniards and Poles - but are there Europeans? Yes, at least one: Timothy Garton Ash. Homelands is the brilliant, captivating story of how he became one.

Mark Lilla, author of The Once and Future Liberal

This book, from a man who had a front-row seat to much of the history he describes, draws on his experiences and those of his friends to bring events to vivid life

Garton Ash deftly combines scholarship, journalistic experience, and personal observations and stories in Homelands ... delightful and thought-provoking

Robert B. Zoellick, author of America in the World

Garton Ash has carved out a unique niche as a 'historian of the present.' Homelands combines his eye-witness account of Europe's evolution with his keen historical insight to offer an innovative and compelling book

Charles A. Kupchan, author of Isolationism

Rich with originality and memoiristic detail

A fluent and authoritative account of Europe since the Second World War

An insightful analysis of the transformation of central and eastern Europe in the decades between the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Garton Ash is a clear-headed chronicler of the Continent [and] Homelands is an engaging read

An authoritative big picture well matched with revealing, important human details

Timothy Garton Ash tells the epic story of ... [postwar] Europe

Excellent ... Read as a letter, such gemlike vignettes can be treasured. Because in them, Garton Ash has captured something of what it means to be European. Though he is proudly in love with Europe, he is not blind to its faults

Part memoir, part history and is fascinating, rich in anecdote, and at times intensely moving

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir — drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

A Personal History of Europe - Updated with a New Chapter

'A moving love letter to Europe' Lea Ypi, author of Free 
 
Homelands is a stunning blend of contemporary history, reporting and memoir by our greatest writer about Europe. 
 
Drawing on half a century of travel and thinking, Homelands tells the story of Europe since its emergence from wartime hell in 1945: how it slowly recovered and rebuilt, liberated and united to come close to the ideal of a Europe 'whole, free and at peace'. And then faltered. 
 
Timothy Garton Ash has spent a lifetime studying Europe. Highly personal and deeply felt, this book is also full of vivid experiences, encounters and anecdotes: from his father's memories of D-Day to interviewing Polish dockers, Albanian guerrillas in the mountains of Kosovo, and angry teenagers in the poorest quarters of Paris, as well as advising prime ministers, chancellors and presidents in the UK, Europe and the US. 
 
Homelands is both a living, breathing history of a period of unprecedented progress and a clear-eyed account of how so much then went wrong, from the financial crisis of 2008 to the war in Ukraine. At its heart, this book is an urgent call to the citizens of this great old continent to understand and defend what we have collectively achieved.

Timothy Garton Ash

Praise for Homelands

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir - drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

Readers could hardly wish for a wiser guide. Over 40 years, Garton Ash has both watched from the stands and played on the pitch in the arena of European change

Outstanding ... Homelands is an elegantly written piece of contemporary history by one of Britain's leading public intellectuals

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir - drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

Readers could hardly wish for a wiser guide. Over 40 years, Garton Ash has both watched from the stands and played on the pitch in the arena of European change

Outstanding ... Homelands is an elegantly written piece of contemporary history by one of Britain's leading public intellectuals

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir - drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

Readers could hardly wish for a wiser guide. Over 40 years, Garton Ash has both watched from the stands and played on the pitch in the arena of European change

Outstanding ... Homelands is an elegantly written piece of contemporary history by one of Britain's leading public intellectuals

Books by Timothy Garton Ash

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