This recent English-language addition to the literature on Switzerland actually does what it promises to do: in 280 pages of text, A Concise History of Switzerland takes the story of the Alpine region that became Switzerland from the early Middle Ages to the present day. In reflecting on Switzerland at the end of its long evolution, the authors write of its political situation today: “the country remained divided between inward- and outward-looking communities, so that politics became increasingly polarized, as was the case elsewhere in Europe. In fact, in the last twenty years or so, the country has become much more of a normal state” (9–10).

The authors bring different strengths to their work. Clive Church, now professor emeritus at the University of Kent, specializes in modern Switzerland, the European Union, and the relationship between Switzerland and the European Union. Randolph Head, professor of history at the University of California at Riverside, writes on early modern Europe in Germany and Switzerland. They clearly worked together closely while preparing this book because the whole volume speaks in a single voice.

Each chapter describes a period of Swiss history. Chapter 2, for instance, deals with “Creating the Swiss Confederation, 1386–1520,” while chapter 8 treats “The Sonderfall Years, 1950–1990.” In the latter, the authors argue correctly that the years of postwar consensus made Swiss and foreign observers feel that Switzerland really was a Sonderfall, or “special case.” The final chapter makes an even bolder claim, usefully summarized in its title: “Since 1989: A Return to Normality?” The definition of “normal” here takes for granted that Switzerland has become like other Western European states, but there are reasons to question that.

The chapters are short and provide a useful summary of the whole argument before the actual narrative begins. That narrative goes far beyond mere description. The authors look for economic and social changes or general European trends to explain as well as depict the evolution of Swiss history and institutions. They note how Swiss success in the wars of the fifteenth century led to the evolution of the first common institution or diet. They sum up complicated developments with impressive brevity. And they describe the collapse of the old order of Swiss politics in 1798 as a paradox: “The late eighteenth century push to cement the Ancien Régime had apparently succeeded, but, in fact, the cantonal oligarchies were too rigid and too divided to react to new challenges. In the end Swiss stability proved illusory” (131). Church and Head avoid jargon, and their prose has a pleasing simplicity. Illustrations are well used: they render the interconnected structure of the Swiss political system with imaginative line drawings that simplify complex constitutional arrangements.

The authors make a remarkably successful attempt to cover the whole history of Switzerland, but to do that, they restrict their narrative to events and the causes of those events or changes. Culture, religion, social change, and economic developments all play their part, but do so as supporting elements for the master narrative of political evolution itself. There are almost no quotes from sources to break up their narrative, which leads to the occasional hasty treatment of complex matters and a certain sameness of tone. The authors' description of how a democratic movement in the 1860s ushered in a wave of new constitutions with provisions for direct democracy is a good example. Theodor Curti quotes the Zurich law of 1869, which states that “the people exercise the legislative power with the assistance of the cantonal council” (Geschichte der schweizerischen Volksgesetzgebung [1882], 234). This shift in power led to a new federal constitution in 1874, and, in 1891, to the introduction of the initiative at the federal level for partial revision of the constitution. The authors write rather dismissively, however, that “the issue did not arouse much public interest at the time” (181).

Of the first eight initiatives, only two succeed; but one, an initiative of 1893, nominally about “animal welfare,” banned Jewish butchers from kosher ritual slaughter. Nearly 50 percent of the electorate turned out, and 60 percent voted “yes.” Switzerland has a long history, in fact, of using popular initiatives to attack unwanted foreigners. The 2009 federal initiative to ban minarets on mosques passed by a margin of 57 percent. In September 2013, 63 percent of voters in the southern canton of Ticino agreed to adopt a popular initiative that banned Muslim women from covering their faces in public. Swiss popular democracy clearly has its dark side. The authors do full justice to these trends toward the end of the book when they sum up the recent growth of “national populism” under the heading “The ‘Sonderfall’ Strikes Back.” Hatred and suspicion of foreigners; dislike and fear of the over-mighty European Union; resentment at the deconstruction of William Tell and the historic foundations of the Confederation; intense dislike of the demeaning of wartime patriotism by recent revelations about the 1940s; and, finally, anxiety about the loss of bank secrecy and the reputation of Swiss banks, have all contributed to a real change of popular sentiment. Perhaps most emblematic of this change is the recent initiative against “mass immigration.” On February 9, 2014, a year after the publication of this book, Swiss voters accepted an initiative sponsored by the right-wing Swiss People's Party to limit “mass immigration.” The referendum passed by a majority of 50.3 percent, with divisions running along the very lines that Church and Head had predicted. The success of the initiative created a crisis between Switzerland and the European Union about free movement of EU nationals, and Switzerland became front-page news all over the world.

Overall, this book represents a remarkable achievement. It relates the entire, eccentric evolution of a unique European state over a millennium with economy, clarity, energy, and coherence. The authors acknowledge Swiss virtues and vices as components of a uniquely democratic state.