This book brings together world-renowned scholars from the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and elsewhere across mainland Europe to provide a multi-authored history of 20th-century Europe from the present to the past. It analyses how successive Europes have been constructed in the wake of the key conflicts of the period: the Cold War and the two World Wars. By regressively tracing Europe's path back to these pivotal moments as part of a unique methodology, Europe's Postwar Periods - 1989, 1945, 1918 reveals the defining characteristics of these postwar periods more clearly and at the same time integrates the changes that followed 1989 into a more substantial historical perspective.

Martin Conway and the author team address the crucial themes in recent European history on a chapter-by-chapter basis that gives comprehensive coverage to the whole of the European region for topics like:

* Borders
* States
* Empires
* Democracy
* Justice
* Markets
* Futures

The volume highlights the fact that Europe was made less by wars than is commonly thought, and more by the nature of the settlements – international, national, political, economic and social – that followed the two World Wars and the Cold War. It is an important, innovative text for all students and scholars of 20th-century European history.

Martin Conway is Professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the author of The Sorrows of Belgium: Liberation and Political Reconstruction 1944-47 (2012), Catholic Politics in Europe 1918-1945 (1997) and Collaboration in Belgium (1993).

Pieter Lagrou teaches contemporary European history at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He is the author of The Legacy of Nazi Occupation: Patriotic Memory and National Recovery in Western Europe, 1945-1965 (1999).

Henry Rousseau is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at the Institut D'histoire du Temps Présent, Paris, France and coordinates the European Network on Contemporary History (EURHISTXX).

Preface – Henry Rousso (French National Centre for Scientific Research, France)
Introduction – Martin Conway (University of Oxford, UK)
1. Borders - Dariusz Stola (Polish Academy of Sciences and Warsaw University, Poland)
2. Demobilizations – John Horne (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
3. Empires - Malika Rahal (French National Centre for Scientific Research, France)
4. States – Pieter Lagrou (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
5. Democracy - Martin Conway (University of Oxford, UK)
6. Pasts – Peter Apor (Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) and Henry Rousso (French National Centre for Scientific Research, France)
7. Justice - Annette Weinke (Friedrich Schiller University, Germany) and Guillaume Mouralis (National Centre for Scientific Research, France)
8. Markets - Paolo Capuzzo (University of Bologna, Italy)
9. Futures - Peter Apor (Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary)
Conclusion - Thomas Lindenberger (University of Potsdam, Germany)
Bibliography
Index