A grab bag, as designed. It was a pleasant book to flip through. The early European history moments were well chosen and I liked most of the essays, just a few that didn't get my attention. This is a series, I may look for the others when in need of some historical snacking. ( )

A collection of essays whose only connecting thread is that they all involve Europe in some way. That's it. Some are art history, others detail revolutions. Some are written in a dry academic style, while others read like pop history, and one, Paul Kennedy's "The Battle of the Nile," is written from the perspective of a fictional Egyptian fisherman (and manages to be actually offensive in how artificial, unconvincing, and Orientalist the fiction is). Some essays relate controversies or mysteries, while others just recount events and periodically insert "I wish I'd been there to see that."

I wish this book had more of a point. They should have curated this collection so that it focused on "key turning points in the drama of European history," as stated on the back, OR focused it on points of history that are still mysterious. As it stands, it's a bunch of utterly random bits of history, most of which is related poorly. ( )

The premise is fascinating; the execution, not so much.

Some of the essays I wasn't expecting much from, and was pleasantly surprised. I was really looking forward to the last two (by Sir John Keegan and Freeman Dyson) but they were complete non-starters. Much more interesting were the middle essays, by Fischer Drew (on the Magna Carta), Parker (on the near-surrender of the Spanish Armada), and Feingold (in the origins of Newton's Principia).

If you pick-and-choose, this book might be worth your while. Not a cover-to-cover read. ( )

I Wish I’d Been There, Book 2: European History. If I were an aspiring or published historical mystery writer searching for new story ideas, then this is a must read book. Twenty academic historians are asked to write an essay on the one moment in European History they wish they could have attended. Although the majority of moments are political in nature (beginning with Alexander the Great’s death and ending with Germany’s surrender in WWII), there are also essays about critical points in art, music, theatre and science. As with any multi-authored collection, some contributors do a better job than others at explaining the background of each moment, its importance in time and what questions they hope could be answered by being present at the scene, but there are far more successes than failures.
Without a doubt I can see talented mystery writers creating new works surrounding these moments from the book: Hannibal crossing the Alps, the Spanish Armada commanders conferring after their first disastrous day in the English Channel, or the backstage drama as Picasso works with the Ballet Russes. And it’s no stretch to see the natural progression from Margaret MacMillan’s essay on meetings in 1918-19 between the French and English prior to the Paris Peace Conference to Mary Doria Russell’s historical novel, Dreamers of the Day, about the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference to the delegation meeting in post-war Egypt in Michael Pearce’s latest, The Mark of the Pasha.
For those that prefer American history to that of Europe, Book 1 in the series should be your choice.
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