Revisiting Modern European History

Revisiting Modern European History complements the first edited volume Themes in Modern European History: Social Movements and Cultural Currents 1789-1945. The two together offer changing perspectives and comprehensive surveys of some of the most profoun

Revisiting Modern European History complements the first edited volume Themes in Modern European History: Social Movements and Cultural Currents 1789-1945. The two together offer changing perspectives and comprehensive surveys of some of the most profound events and processes of modern European history. While the first volume dealt with modern movements, revolutions and cultural developments, the present volume looks at these transformations through the lens of gender, race, class and nation. It revisits the grand narrative of modern Europe in which Europe is depicted as the fulcrum of univers.

Broad in geographical scope, this collection explores the most important transformations and upheavals of post-1945 Europe in the light of recent scholarship. A wide array of authors from the UK, the USA and across Europe contribute twelve chapters consider key political, cultural and economic changes of an era that needs reevalutaion and reconsideration from a historical perspective. Cross-disciplinary, covering a wide range of issues – politics, economics, social and cultural aspects Themes in Modern European History since 1945 is structured around recent theoretical debates on the postwar, and will find a firm standing on the bookshelves of European history students.

Do women have a history? Did women have a renaissance? These were provocative questions when they were raised in the heyday of women’s studies in the 1970s. But how relevant does gender remain to premodern history in the twenty-first century? This book considers this question in eight new case studies that span the European continent from 1400 to 1800. An introductory essay examines the category of gender in historiography and specifically within premodern historiography, as well as the issue of source material for historians of the period. The eight individual essays seek to examine gender in relation to emerging fields and theoretical considerations, as well as how premodern history contributes to traditional concepts and theories within women’s and gender studies, such as patriarchy.

This comprehensive account analyses the people, places and issues at the heart of modern Europes major historical events. All the major themes, personalities and issues during this period of great upheaval and change are analysed. An ideal reference guide to the period, this book highlights the various developments and changes that have occurred in Europe during the last 200 years and examines the participation of the major European powers in each. Major topics include the Napoleonic era, the unification of Italy and Germany, Victorian England, Fascism and Nazism, the Cold War, and the expansion and consolidation of the European Union.

In an era defined by daily polls, institutional rankings, and other forms of social quantification, it can be easy to forget that comparison has a long historical lineage. Presenting a range of multidisciplinary perspectives, this volume investigates the concepts and practices of comparison from the early modern period to the present. Each chapter demonstrates how comparison has helped to drive the seemingly irresistible dynamism of the modern world, exploring how comparatively minded assessors determine their units of analysis, the criteria they select or ignore, and just who it is that makes use of these comparisons—and to what ends.

This book is a collection of essays by leading practitioners of modern European intellectual history, reflecting on the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the field. The essays each attempt to assess their respective disciplines, giving an account of their development and theoretical evolution, while also reflecting on current problems, challenges, and possibilities.

Periodisation is an ever-present feature of the grammar of history-writing. As with all grammatical rules, the order it imposes can both liberate and stifle. Though few historians would consider their period boundaries as anything more than useful guidelines, heuristic artifice all too easily congeals into immovable structure, blinkering the historical gaze. Researchers of literature are, of course, challenged by similar dilemmas. Here, too, the neatness of periodisation can obscure the cultural output of awkward individuals that do not fit the right chronological corset, whilst also creating unfounded expectations of shared experience and expression. Rather than discard periodisation altogether, in this cross-disciplinary volume an international group of historians and literary scholars presents different ways in which accepted period boundaries in modern European history can be challenged and rethought. To do so, they explore unnoticed continuities, and instances of delayed cultural transfer that defy easy periodisation; adopt the perspective of social groups that standard periodisation schemes have ignored; and consider how historical actors themselves divide up history and how this can affect their actions.