Post-War Debates: The making of contemporary Europe

Europe was in ruins in 1945, not just physically but intellectually. How as the Continent and its civilisation to be rebuilt, and perhaps reformed? In this module we will consider de-Nazification and the attempt to inoculate Europe against political extremism; the revival of Christian Democracy and a Pan-European ideology; the project of European integration, the European Union and its mechanism; nationalism and the resistance to this project; the Atlantic Alliance, political and cultural anti-Americanism; the end of the European empires; the victory and defeat of Marxism and social democracy in Europe; Les Trente Glorieuses, affluence; 1989, expansion eastward of NATO and the E.U., the ‘clash of civilisations’ with Islam and the demographic crisis.