Cosmopolitan Islanders
British Historians and the European Continent

A trenchant analysis of the evolution and motivations of British historians' fascination with the European continent.

Richard J. Evans (Author)

9780521199988, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 May 2009

272 pages
22.3 x 14.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.49 kg

'This book has all the advantages one expects of a text by Richard Evans: an interesting subject, clear prose, a broad sweep, decisive opinions, snap judgements - and thus the ability to provoke on a missive scale.' German Historical Institute London Bulletin

In Cosmopolitan Islanders one of the world's leading historians asks why it is that so many prominent and influential British historians have devoted themselves to the study of the European continent. Books on the history of France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and many other European countries, and of Europe more generally, have frequently reached the best-seller lists both in Britain and (in translation) in those European countries themselves. Yet the same is emphatically not true in reverse. Richard J. Evans traces the evolution of British interest in the history of Continental Europe from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century. He goes on to discuss why British historians who work on aspects of European history in the present day have chosen to do so and why this distinguished tradition is now under threat. Cosmopolitan Islanders ends with some reflections on what needs to be done to ensure its continuation in the future.

Preface
1. Unequal exchanges
2. The view across the Channel
3. Open borders
4. A sense of adventure
5. The language problem
Appendix
Further reading.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], British & Irish history [HBJD1], European history [HBJD], Historiography [HBAH]