What is Europe? A continent? A political institution? A cultural community? Bringing together 101 key texts on the theme of European identity, this reader provides essential insights into the idea of 'Europe', from 450 BC to the twenty first century. The only collection of its kind in English, it includes rare and newly translated material alongside classic texts from antiquity and the Enlightenment, from figures as diverse as Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Winston S. Churchill and Julia Kristeva. Space is also given to views of Europe from the outside, including Asian, African, Latin American, US and Caribbean authors. With an introductory overview, notes on each text, and a guide to further reading, Alex Drace-Francis brings issues of European identity into sharp relief for both teachers and students of European history, geography, culture and politics.
ALEX DRACE-FRANCIS is Associate Professor in Modern European Literary and Cultural History at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, having previously taught at the Universities of London and Liverpool. He has published widely on European literary, cultural and political history.
Introduction: What is Europe?AntiquityMiddle AgesRenaissanceEnlightenmentRomanticismModernityPost-WarFurther ReadingIndex.
This source collection will fill a major gap in the market. The coverage of a wider timespan is one of the great strengths of the book. It forces the reader to think in terms of a longue duree that transcends the usual barriers of medieval, early modern and late modern history.