Formations of European modernity : a historical and political sociology of Europe / Gerard Delanty, University of Sussex, UK.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Delanty, Gerard.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political sociology.

Europe--Economic policy.

Europe.

Economic policy.

Europe--History.

History.

History, Modern.

Physical Description:

xii, 337 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

This book seeks to provide an interpretation of the idea of Europe through an analysis of the course of European history. It aims to discover the structure of qualitative shifts in the relation between state, society and individual, how they occurred and what were their consequences for the formation of social and cultural structures for modern European history. The book makes a major contribution to the debate on the idea of Europe and offers an interdisciplinary approach drawing especially from history, sociology and political theory, but also from geography and anthropology. The theoretical objective is to make sense of the course of European history through an account of the formation of a European cultural model that emerges out of the legacies of the inter-civilizational background. It considers how in relation to this cultural model a societal structure takes shape. The tension between both gives form to Europe's path to modernity and defines the specificity of its heritage. The structuring process that has shaped Europe made possible a model of modernity that has placed a strong emphasis on the values of social justice and solidarity. These values have been reflectively appropriated in different periods to produce different interpretations, societal outcomes and a multiplicity of projects of modernity. Book jacket.

Contents:

Preface and acknowledgements

Map of Europe

Introduction: a theoretical framework

Sources of the European heritage

The European inter-civilizational constellation

The Greco-Roman and Judaic legacies

Christianity in the making of Europe

The Byzantine legacy and Russia

The Islamic world and Islam in Europe

The emergence of modernity

The Renaissance and the rise of the West revisited

Unity and division in early modern European history : the emergence of a westernized Europe

The enlightenment and European modernity : the rise of the idea of Europe

The rise of the nation-state and the allure of empire : between nationalism and cosmopolitanism

The historical regions of Europe : civilizational backgrounds and multiple routes to modernity

Europe in the short twentieth century : conflicting projects of modernity

The present and its discontents

Europe since 1989 : nationalism, cosmopolitanism and globalization

Age of austerity : contradictions of capitalism and democracy

The European heritage as a conflict of interpretations

Conclusion: Europe : a defence

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781137287908

113728790X

9781137287915

1137287918

OCLC:

828486451