Both are fine, but I'd start with a more broad work to begin with.
Just "European history" is incredibly broad, and there is no book adequately covering all of it, so you have to say what you are specifically interested in. That is, period, region/country/etc.
With the disclaimer that I'm not claiming these are the absolute best, only that I could detect no glaring faults in them.
Pre Greek history,
Not much in terms of documentation has survived from that era, so it's basically mostly archeology. I find it a bit boring myself.
Ancient Greek history,
Ancient Greece (Thomas R. Martin), which also has some pre-Greek. For more on the most consequential periods, you can get A War Like No Other (Victor Davis Hansen) and Philip and Alexander (Adrien Goldsworthy).
The history of The Holy Roman Empire,
Heart of Europe (Peter Wilson).
Medieval European history,
Power and Thrones by Dan Jones is OK for an introduction (the topic is huge). A New Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden is a great work on the crusades.
The history of The Renaissance, The Victorian Age,
I know very little about that.
the 1700's to the 1900's.
The Pursuit of Power: 1815-1914 (Richard J. Evans). From Vienna to Versailles (Lewis Seaman) provides a delightful and perhaps idiosyncratic analysis of the era when you've got the basics down. 1789-1815 can be covered by A New World Begins (Jeremy Popkin), a pro-French Revolution work and Napoleon (Andrew Roberts) for a pro-Napoleon biography.
More general guidelines: Prefer works by history professors to works by journalists and laymen, if you don't find significant gender/race/etc. other crap as their field or in the stuff they have published, you'll have a better hit rate. For more in-depth reading, consult the 'further reading', or the footnotes or endnotes of books that have a good author. I've come across a lot of good books that way.
And to get the basics down, you can use Britannica (no Wikipedia pls), and I've found Britannica 1911 to be quite a good source (and far more comprehensive than modern versions), if a good deal out of date on some topics.
Most history is written by the victors and is fake. Alexander the Great and his father Filip were Macedonian but the jews will tell you he was greek for example.
Honest advice - try something written pre-1960. Some of it will be public domain by now.
Works written in English before 1940 are even more likely to be accurate, as well as more likely to be in the public domain. To absolutely guarantee an absence of Communist subversion, though, the discerning reader will need works written before 1860.
If you can get the old copies of Daniel Boorstin's works, those would be worthwhile. The Creators and the Discoverers in particular.
Both are fine, but I'd start with a more broad work to begin with.
Just "European history" is incredibly broad, and there is no book adequately covering all of it, so you have to say what you are specifically interested in. That is, period, region/country/etc.
Older translations of Pliny cover the Roman Republic fairly well, and they're as close as you'll get to second party sources.
With the disclaimer that I'm not claiming these are the absolute best, only that I could detect no glaring faults in them.
Not much in terms of documentation has survived from that era, so it's basically mostly archeology. I find it a bit boring myself.
Ancient Greece (Thomas R. Martin), which also has some pre-Greek. For more on the most consequential periods, you can get A War Like No Other (Victor Davis Hansen) and Philip and Alexander (Adrien Goldsworthy).
Heart of Europe (Peter Wilson).
Power and Thrones by Dan Jones is OK for an introduction (the topic is huge). A New Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden is a great work on the crusades.
I know very little about that.
The Pursuit of Power: 1815-1914 (Richard J. Evans). From Vienna to Versailles (Lewis Seaman) provides a delightful and perhaps idiosyncratic analysis of the era when you've got the basics down. 1789-1815 can be covered by A New World Begins (Jeremy Popkin), a pro-French Revolution work and Napoleon (Andrew Roberts) for a pro-Napoleon biography.
More general guidelines: Prefer works by history professors to works by journalists and laymen, if you don't find significant gender/race/etc. other crap as their field or in the stuff they have published, you'll have a better hit rate. For more in-depth reading, consult the 'further reading', or the footnotes or endnotes of books that have a good author. I've come across a lot of good books that way.
And to get the basics down, you can use Britannica (no Wikipedia pls), and I've found Britannica 1911 to be quite a good source (and far more comprehensive than modern versions), if a good deal out of date on some topics.
Hi, I'm looking for history that spans thousands of years. Are these two authors good?
Come on bro... At least give us a specific period of time or something...
The last history book I read was Tragedy and Hope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope
Asking this here is a mistake. Incoming "Holocaust was a hoax" suggestions.
Honest advice - try something written pre-1960. Some of it will be public domain by now.
Most history is written by the victors and is fake. Alexander the Great and his father Filip were Macedonian but the jews will tell you he was greek for example.
Works written in English before 1940 are even more likely to be accurate, as well as more likely to be in the public domain. To absolutely guarantee an absence of Communist subversion, though, the discerning reader will need works written before 1860.
Those people have not come to that 'conclusion' because they read a book.
I expect most people here to find pre-1960s works rather dull, I'm afraid.