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This book presents a historical and political sociology of European history and society. It offers a critical interpretation of the course of European history looking at the emergence of the idea of Europe and the emergence of modernity.

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This book seeks to provide an interpretation of the idea of Europe through an analysis of the course of European history. It aims to discover the structure of qualitative shifts in the relation between state, society and individual, how they occurred and what were their consequences for the formation of social and culture structures for European history. The book makes a major contribution to the debate on the idea of Europe and offers an interdisciplinary approach drawing especially from history, sociology and political theory, but also from geography and anthropology.
The theoretical objective of is to make sense of the course of European history through an account of the formation of a European cultural model that emerges out of the legacies of the inter-civilizational background. It considers how in relation to this cultural model a societal structure takes shape. The tension between both gives form to Europe´s path to modernity and defines the specificity of its heritage. The structuring process that has shaped Europe made possible a model of modernity that has placed a strong emphasis on the values of social justice and solidarity. These values have been reflectively appropriated in different periods to produce different interpretations, societal outcomes and a multiplicity of projects of modernity.

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Introduction: A Theoretical Framework PART I: SOURCES OF THE EUROPEAN HERITAGE 1. The European Inter-Civilizational Constellation 2. The Greco-Roman and Judaic Legacies 3. Christianity in the Making of Europe 4. The Byzantine Legacy and Russia 5. The Islamic World and Islam in Europe PART II: THE EMERGENCE OF MODERNITY 6. The Renaissance and the Rise of the West Revisited 7. Unity and Division in Early Modern European History: The Emergence of a Westernized Europe 8. The Enlightenment and European Modernity: The Rise of the Idea of Europe 9. The Rise of the Nation-State and the Allure of Empire: Between Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism 10. The Historical Regions of Europe: Civilizational Backgrounds and Multiple Routes to Modernity 11. Europe in the Short Twentieth Century: Conflicting Projects of Modernity PART III: THE PRESENT AND ITS DISCONTENTS 12. Europe Since 1989: Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Globalization 13. Age of Austerity: Contradictions of Capitalism and Democracy 14. The European Heritage as a Conflict of Interpretations Conclusion: Europe - a Defence

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