BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION,Ahistory of Europein our time
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loginThere is no document of civilization’, writes Walter Benjamin, ‘that is notsimultaneously a document of barbarism.’1During the past century Europewas the scene of some of the most savage episodes of collective violence inthe recorded history of the human species. Yet the same period has also seenincontestable improvements in many aspects of the life of most inhabitantsof the continent: human life has been extended, on average, by more thanhalf; standards of living have increased dramatically; illiteracy has been allbut eliminated; women, ethnic minorities, and homosexuals have advancedcloser to equality of respect and opportunity. These and other changes havebeen so rapid and convulsive that any effort to distil their essence is aquixotic undertaking. Here is one historian’s tilt at the windmill. This is along book—necessarily so. Both the theme and the evidence are vast. Yetmuch has had to be omitted or boiled down: as the painter Max Liebermannput it: ‘Drawing implies leaving out.’2My primary objective has been to fashion a narrative of the main contoursof the political, diplomatic, and military history of Europe in this periodas well as to describe and account for the most striking features of demo-graphic, economic, and social change. In the cultural sphere, I have hadroom to do no more than provide glimpses of areas that, it may be argued,affected society most broadly, such as film, broadcasting, and popular music.I also seek to furnish some basis for understanding the evolution of values inan era during which God has disappeared as a living presence for most Europeans.
