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Christoph Boyer
The Unity of European Contemporary History
Keywords: Europäische Zeitgeschichte, Demokratisch sozialstaatlicher Industriekapitalismus, Europa und die Moderns
European contemporary history can be conceptualised as a coherent research programme. In view of a number of reciprocally linked modernising surges, the beginning of the present time is shifted into the late 19th century. Then, the leitmotiv of the 20th century is the search for solutions for the problems of developed and developing industrial societies. Three European paths of development (and numerous variants) can be distinguished. In the long term, they converge in a democratically constituted industrial capitalism, domesticated by interventionism and cushioned by a welfare state – all with a genuine European profile; this alleged “victor of history” steers towards an existential crisis during the final third of the century. Investigations into contemporary history reconstruct these learning experiences comparatively and in view of transfers and transnational interconnections and incorporates them into global relationships.
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag
Print ISSN: 0042-5702
Volume: 55, 03/2007
Pages: 487 - 496