In the wake of the break-up of the Soviet Empire in Europe’s East, and at a time of  hesitant steps toward a supranational Europe in the West, questions of identity have been raised with an urgency recalling more troubled periods of European modernity. Then, as now, it was history that provided the architects of identity with their building blocks. Will the structures built with such blocks prove any more solid in the next millennium?

This collection unites wide-ranging essays by scholars from many countries dealing with histories and identities in Europe from the French Revolution to the present. From multiple perspectives they cast light on some of European history’s enduring controversies as well as introduce some new ones.