Introduction: A Theoretical Framework

Abstract

This book seeks to provide an interpretation of the idea of Europe through an analysis of the course of European history. In order to undertake This formidable task it is necessary to clarify some of The theoretical questions that are at stake and to place the question of Europe in a broader framework of analysis. The starting point in any such study is the recognition that the facts of European history alone do not answer the question of how we should understand the shape of Europe as it formed in the course of its history and still less how we should evaluate the significance of Europe in the present day. The significance of specific events can undoubtedly be understood by reference to a shorter time-scale, but the long-term analysis that such a task requires is beset with many difficulties, leading most historians to avoid such ventures which often are sustained only by polemics or a selective reading of history. This is in part because the historian generally does not begin from the perspective of the present day, which we are forced to do so in addressing the question of the contemporary significance of the idea of Europe, But it is also because the historian is not concerned with making sense of the unintended consequences of specific events for later periods or with the developmental dynamics of societies for which a broader framework of analysis is required.