Selective Baltic History

Posted by Kerry Kubilius Nov 5, 2007

As a disclaimer, I'd like to say that I'm not quite halfway through The Baltics: A New History of the Region and Its People, by Alan Palmer, published in 2006. However, as a reader in search of a really good history about the Baltic region, I lost interest after Palmer glossed over much of the early history of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, including the reigns of Gediminas and other important figures relevent to Eastern European Baltic history.

Palmer lavishes plenty of attention on other peoples, including the early Swedes, Danes, the Dutch, the Germans, and the Russians. I don't know if it is my own personal bias, or if other readers agree that the title and subtitle of the book imply concentration on what we currently know to be the Baltic States in Northern Eastern Europe (though one may argue that the title is The Baltic, referring to the sea, not The Baltics).

Again, bias speaks, but I find the book to be a bore. The writing is unexciting and lacks proper citation of references. The writer seems fixated on every region except for what Eastern Europe scholars refer to as "the Baltics." Palmer lost his chance to appeal to a neglected readership and instead chose the easy route by filling up the book with information about Northern European/Scandinavian history.

If you're looking for a good history about Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, pass this book up. You'll just have to skim most of the contents to find any information about these three countries, their early peoples, and the development of the region