A European Past

World-renowned historian and eyewitness to history, Felix Gilbert offers in his memoirs a unique perspective on the events of the 20th century. He recalls his childhood during the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and vividly describes the devastation of his native Germany by the Nazis.

When we think about the European past, we tend to imagine villages, towns, and cities populated by conventional families—married couples and their children. Although most people did marry and pass many of their adult years in the company of a spouse, this vision of a preindustrial Europe shaped by heterosexual marriage deceptively hides the well-established fact that, in some times and places, as many as twenty-five percent of women and men remained single throughout their lives. Despite the significant number of never-married lay women in medieval and early modern Europe, the study of their role and position in that society has been largely neglected. Singlewomen in the European Past opens up this group for further investigation. It is not only the first book to highlight the important minority of women who never married but also the first to address the critical matter of differences among women from the perspective of marital status. Essays by leading scholars—among them Maryanne Kowaleski, Margaret Hunt, Ruth Mazo Karras, Susan Mosher Stuard, Roberta Krueger, and Merry Wiesner—deal with topics including the sexual and emotional relationships of singlewomen, the economic issues and employment opportunities facing them, the differences between the lives of widows and singlewomen, the conflation of singlewomen and prostitutes, and the problem of female slavery. The chapters both illustrate the roles open to the singlewoman in the thirteenth through eighteenth centuries and raise new perspectives about the experiences of singlewomen in earlier times.

This book turns the received wisdom of European history inside out. From discussions of the Gothic, Hun and Vandal invasions and the fall of the Roman Empire, through other great events and issues of European history, Josep Fontana re-examines the traditional acceptance of such ideas as classical heritage, medieval Christendom, reformation and counter-reformation, absolutism, and the idea of progress. At the same time he draws attention to the existence and validity of dissidence, rebellion and variety which are, for him, identifying marks of Europe.

World-renowned historian and eyewitness to history, Felix Gilbert offers in his memoirs a unique perspective on the events of the 20th century. He recalls his childhood during the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and vividly describes the devastation of his native Germany by the Nazis.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • One of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year “Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” —The Wall Street Journal “Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” —The Boston Globe Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy. Judt's book, Ill Fares the Land, republished in 2021 featuring a new preface by bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Karin Tilmans is an historian, and academic coordinator of the Max Weber Programme at the European University Institute, Florence. Frank van Vree is an historian and professor of journalism at the University of Amsterdam. Jay M. Winter is the Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale. --

The essays assembled here represent forty years of reflection about the European cultural past by an eminent historian. The volume concentrates on the Renaissance and Reformation, while providing a lens through which to view problems of perennial interest. A Usable Past is a book of unusual scope, touching on such topics as political thought and historiography, metaphysical and practical conceptions of order, the relevance of Renaissance humanism to Protestant thought, the secularization of European culture, the contributions of particular professional groups to European civilization, and the teaching of history. The essays in A Usable Past are unified by a set of common concerns. William Bouwsma has always resisted the pretensions to science that have shaped much recent historical scholarship and made the work of historians increasingly specialized and inaccessible to lay readers. Following Friedrich Nietzsche, he argues that since history is a kind of public utility, historical research should contribute to the self-understanding of society.

Read about the world's smallest continent's incredible history: From Greek gods and mad Roman emperors to kings, queens, Visigoths, and Normans You meet Visigoths in Africa and Normans in Sicily; an Italian who talked to his books and another who conquered a kingdom and gave it away; Roman emperors who weren't Roman; and Holy Roman Emperors who weren't holy (or Roman). This is the story of Europe's rich history rolled into one thrilling account in plain English. European History For Dummies takes you on a fascinating journey through the disasters, triumphs, people, power, and politics that have shaped the Europe we know today - and you'll meet some incredible characters along the way! From Roman relics to the Renaissance, World Wars, and Eurovision, this accessible guide packs in the facts alongside fun tidbits and brings the past alive. You meet the two Catholic kings of Spain (one was a woman) and the Spanish king who never smiled. You discover a German monk who split Europe in two because he was so afraid of going to hell. And what about the great European war that started when two nobles were thrown out of a window onto a dungheap? Well, at least they had a soft landing. If you don't remember much of what you learned about European history at school, if you didn't like those dry school textbooks, if you think European history sounds a bit hard, but you're interested anyway, this is the book for you. Inside you'll discover: The varied history of the world's smallest continent, its origins, and its huge impact on the world How the Romans shaped the ancient world, what they learned from the Greeks, and what they lost to the barbarian tribes The many battles of the Middle Ages and the leaders who waged them The medieval people's great achievements in building and learning Europeans' world explorers, including Columbus and Vasco da Gama Unfortunate religious wars and the persecution of witches Europe's world domination in the 18th and 19th centuries The world wars of the 20th century European life today Get your own copy of European History For Dummies to learn all of that and more -- including the ten Europeans who dominated the continent, ten unforgettable dates, and ten European locales you'll absolutely want to visit.

This volume contains three sections of essays which examine the role of commemoration and public celebrations in the creation of a national identity in Habsburg lands. It also seeks to engage historians of culture and of nationalism in other geographic fields as well as colleagues who work on Habsburg Central Europe, but write about nationalism from different vantage points. There is hope that this work will help generate a dialogue, especially with colleagues who live in the regions that were analyzed. Many of the authors consider the commemorations discussed in this volume from very different points of view, as they themselves are strongly rooted in a historical context that remains much closer to the nationalism we critique.

Imagining Europe: Essays on the Past, Present and Future of the European Union examines the EU from a variety of perspectives. The collection begins with the expectation that, despite its challenges, the European Union is here to say, but it also proceeds from the premise that imaginative thinking is necessary to guide the 27 member organization into the future. The book offers nine chapters and a substantive introduction to examine the EU from the point-of-view of a commercial enterprise, the writings of José Ortega y Gasset, immigration and public opinion, its relationship with China, its management of political populism, the American Federalist papers—and more. The first chapter is a summary of the history, structure and processes of the European Union for the convenience of those using this text in the classroom. The last chapter considers this latest chapter of European development, in light of the historical quest for a united Europe. The contributors to the volume are scholars residing in the U.S., Poland, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Turkey.