Common Roots of Europe
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Geremek, Bronislaw / Hunt, R. / Mitchell, S., PUBLISHER: Polity Press, In The Common Roots of Europe, one of the foremost social historians in Europe today explores the emergence of the idea of Europe and its transformation over time. Geremek shows how, in the Middle Ages, the term Europe' first came to be used to indicate a geographical place. It was only towards the end of this period that the concept of a cultural and historical entity called Europe' began to take shape, and the term was used more and more widely in historical and philosophical works. He argues that Europe' was now no longer synonymous with the word Christianity': it had become something more specific. Geremek claims that, in western Europe today, the sense of belonging to European civilization is felt less strongly than in the countries of central Europe. He suggests that it is in everyone's interests to understand Europe in a wider sense, not just as a geographical concept, but as a political and cultural one too. He discusses unity, variety and collective identity in medieval Europe, social and economic structures in East and West, and the continuity and change in European identity in the intervening centuries. Buy Now