A review by sinelce
Histories of Nations: How Their Identities Were Forged by Peter Furtado, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Murat Siviloglu, Pirjo Markkola, Laszlo Kontler, Hussein Bassir, Ciaran Brady, Pavel Seifter, Stefan Berger, Iwona Sakowicz, Willem Frijhoff, Antonis Liakos, Jeremy Black, Dina Khapaeva, Ryūichi Narita, Giovanni Levi, Luiz Marques, Federico Lorenz, Mihir Bose, Elizabeth Baquedano, Colin Shindler, Peter Onuf, Wilhelmina Donkoh, Peter Aronsson, Homa Katouzian, Stuart Macintyre, Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, Zhitian Luo, Margaret Conrad

3.0

A really interesting idea, but quite limited / inconsistent on paper. I found this quite useful for brushing up on both general, historiographical developments and occasional "alternative" histories. However, whilst the majority of chapters are well crafted, certain inclusions (such as the chapter on Israel and the Zionist project) are at times self-contradictory or wishy washy in their depiction of history and taste much like wasted opportunities. By including all of these pieces alongside one another, there is also the matter of stemming into a pseudo "egalitarian" placement of history (i.e. not cognizant of colonialism et al) that, as any historian will know, is at best misleading and at worst, intellectually contrived.

Having said that, as long as the above factors were considered I would consider reading something in this style in future. Perhaps something a little more comprehensive, e.g., a volume that covers lesser known histories and or peoples' histories a la the late great Howard Zinn and William A Pelz.

Still, I suppose you could do worse for a mass market "2 for 1" history 'anthology'.