Bedford To Berlin And Beyond

Bedford to Berlin and Beyond (1994) – Robert Coates
Fitzjames Press | ISBN: 9780948358050
Condition: As New | Sold by Crappy Old Books

Bedford to Berlin. Not, on the face of it, the most obvious journey imaginable. Bedford, that respectable English county town associated with brickmaking, engineering, the River Great Ouse and the comforting predictability of provincial life. Berlin, meanwhile, a city whose twentieth-century history involved two world wars, political extremism, foreign occupation, ideological confrontation and the construction of a wall that became one of the most notorious pieces of urban architecture ever devised.

And beyond? Well, that rather depends upon where history decides to take you.

In Bedford to Berlin and Beyond, Robert Coates presents an intriguingly titled journey from the familiar surroundings of Britain towards the much wider European world, inviting readers to contemplate the extraordinary contrasts between ordinary life at home and the dramatic events that shaped the continent during the twentieth century.

It is a title that immediately suggests movement, changing circumstances and the curious ways in which individual lives can become entangled with places and events far beyond their original horizons. After all, somebody setting out from Bedford might reasonably anticipate arriving in Luton, perhaps even London, without necessarily expecting Berlin to feature prominently in the itinerary.

Berlin itself offers enough historical material to keep several generations of historians permanently employed. Once the capital of imperial Germany, later the political centre of the Nazi dictatorship, and subsequently the divided symbol of the Cold War, it became a city where international tensions were expressed through checkpoints, concrete barriers, heavily armed soldiers and the extraordinary proposition that one half of a street could belong to an entirely different political universe.

Published in 1994, just five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this Fitzjames Press volume belongs to an especially interesting historical moment. Germany had recently been reunified, the Soviet Union had disappeared, and Europe was attempting to adjust to the unfamiliar prospect of a future in which the Cold War no longer provided a convenient explanation for everything.

There is something particularly appealing about books whose titles connect modest British locations with internationally significant destinations. They remind us that history is not experienced exclusively by presidents, generals and individuals whose names appear in enormous letters on monuments. It is also encountered by ordinary people whose journeys, careers and experiences take them into circumstances they could scarcely have anticipated.

And, naturally, there is the eternal British challenge of travelling abroad while retaining a proper appreciation of the comforts of home, preferably including a decent cup of tea.

This 1994 Fitzjames Press edition, offered in As New condition by Crappy Old Books, is an appealing find for collectors of lesser-known British publications, readers interested in European history and anyone attracted to unusual titles promising a journey considerably more ambitious than the average trip out of Bedfordshire.

An intriguing vintage volume connecting the familiar with the faraway, and a reminder that even the most unassuming starting point can lead somewhere extraordinary.

Because Bedford is a perfectly respectable place to begin.

But Berlin certainly makes for a more dramatic chapter heading.

Keep browsing: See more Transport books Other books by Robert Coates