This collection of essays traces the important issues during this period and sets them in the context of what had hitherto been seen as the norms of political, economic and social life. The essays deal with continuity - or lack of it - with the past and the rapid breaking of the threads which normally bind the lives of one generation to its predecessors and successors. Emphasis is on cultural change; the shifting balance of European, and world, power which led to the Cold War and post-Cold War period is closely examined. Linking together developments in society, the economy, politics and culture, this volume elucidates the very different paths followed by the major European states. Edward Acton, Nicholas Atkin, Philip Bell, Michael Biddiss, Paul Hayes

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Paul Hayes; 2. France and Germany: Belle Epoque and Kaiserzeit, Paul Hayes; 3. Russia and Austria-Hungary: Empires Under Pressure, Paul Hayes; 4. Intellectual and Cultural Revolution 189-1914 5. Origins of the War of 1914, Philip Bell; 6. The Great War and its Impact, Philip Bell; 7. State and Society Under Lenin and Stalin, Edward Acton; 8. The Triumph of Caesarism: Fascism and Nazism, Paul Hayes; 9. Between Democracy and Autocracy: France 1918-1945, Nicholas Atkin; 10. Hitler's War? The Origins of the Second World War in Europe, Philip Bell; 11. Europe in the Second World War, Philip Bell; 12. Mind at the End of Its Tether: Political Ideology and Cultural Confusion 1914-1945, Michael Bibbiss

Author Biography

Paul Hayes is Fellow and Tutor in Modern History and Politics at Keble College, Oxford