OK, you could write a shorter history. It is possible. But if you did, it would be of the nature of here’s the Romans, long bit where nothing much happens but there’s a lot of fighting, Renaissance!, another long bit where there’s a lot of fighting, Risorgimento!, Fascism (hiss! boo!), fashion. What Ross King does particularly well in this book is fill in the bits where, apparently, nothing much happens apart from a lot of fighting. In this, he’s helped by Italy having a lot of really interesting history. So if you want to learn more about the history of Italy, and in particular the bits apart from Rome and Renaissance, then this is a good place to start.