Histories of European resurrections, 1815, 1945, 1989

In this paper I will compare a number of influential histories of Europe, written in times of political reconstruction of Europe as a whole, as well as its constituent parts. Focusing on 1815, 1945, and 1989, it will become clear that in each of these episodes, the harmony of Europe was said to depend on a specific intra-state and civilization order, yet that the histories of the previously hegemonic states - respectively France, Germany, and in 1989 perhaps both the USSR and the US -  needed to be overcome in order to fit new states into this larger civilizational whole. In this way, periods of (historical as well as political) reconstruction reveal the interaction between European and national histories.