A Concise History of Finland (Cambridge Concise Histories) 1st Edition

Perfect condition. Timely fulfillment.

The rather dry A Concise History of Finland (Kirby) does give a good view of the 1800s and the rise of Finnish nationalism. Some shorter descriptions and tourist guides usually fail at that. That book gives a lot of data on developments of the last few centuries, as well as industry. This is where the books in this series start sounding like written by an academic for his audience. The years 1939-1956 are described in detail, including the war with Russia. Two maps of the Winter war and Continuation war. Good coverage of politics inside and within Europe. The allied support of the Winter War was never going to come.The book is a mix of narrative and policial history. Modern Finland is here, pages p.276-305 covering the years past Kekkonen.I have no plan to read the entire book, but several chapters were worth the effort. The early part, Swedish Finland, covers mostly the protestant era, Gustav Vasa and after that.If you want a deeper history, the TK Derry book from 1980 titled "Scadinavia" goes into more detail on the period before 1500. That book also has a chapter on "Scandinavia" and Finland from 1864-1914 that covers a lot of the Finnish history.Other than that, there are no popular books on Finnish history. Even in Finnish, the topic has not produced any works translated since about 2000. Look for the Matti Klinge book A brief history of Finland, though. Very short, but readable. Used copies can be found.

This is a good book. First published in 2006. Looks like that much needs to be added since then and I have not seen an update. Appreciate the book, nevertheless.

The books is good: well researched and a clear description of Finland's history. The historical relation with Sweden, Russia and Germany is well presented. The emphasis, however, is too much on the political development (e.g., the elections, the parliamentary alliances, the presidents). But it is not clear how Finland economy has transformed from a natural resource based economy towards a knowledge one. The education and cultural process is also not clearly presented. I would have liked a more balanced book regarding the different topics.

Very good in going into my families past history from Finland. Excellent in the actual history of my grandfathers homeland.

Almost everything you need to know!

This book is an informative account of the development of a modern nation from its beginning as the home of a unique people with a unique language, the Finns. Overlaid on this were colonisation in the 12th centry by the Swedes who also brought with them western Christianity. This placed the new country at odds at many levels with its burgeoning neighbour, Russia. However, through some deft handling by the country's politicians, diplomats and occasionally its military, Finland managed to keep Russia pretty well at arm's length until well into the last centruy. In fact the last restrictive arrangement with Russia was not removed until 1995 with Finland's entry into the EU.The book did concentrate on the vital political aspects which was probably necessary to remain "concise", but perhaps it would have been even more interesting to expand on other national aspects. For example the creation of the Nokia company was barely mentioned. Another improvement would have been a couple of larger scale maps for areas of interest.My conclusion - it was well worth the purchase.

A splendidly well-researched history. David Kirby gives a refreshingly rare even-handed review of the civil war period. Also, he approaches the often-confusing politics of the post WW2 period with clarity and I particularly enjoyed his appraisal of the 'reign' of Urho Kekkonen. It is difficult to be sufficiently exhaustive in such a concise history and I would love to read a more expansive history by the same author.A Concise History of Finland (Cambridge Concise Histories)