Transnational Moments of Change

Offering a broad introduction to the methodology and practice of transnational history, this work focuses on three defining moments of 20th century European history, when changes affected the whole of the continent. Transnational Moments of Change offers a broad introduction to the methodology and practice of transnational history. To demonstrate the value of this approach, the work focuses on Europe since World War II, a period whose study particularly benefits from a transnational vantage point. Twelve distinguished contributors from around the globe offer a range of transnational approaches to three continent-wide moments of change. The work begins with a look at the close of World War Two, when liberation from Nazi occupation offered the opportunity for social and political experiment. Next, essays explore the late 1960s as generational change and political dissatisfaction rocked urban centers from Paris to Prague. Finally, the book turns to the fall of communism, a moment of revolutionary change that not only spread rapidly from country to country, but even affected and interacted with protest movements in Western Europe and elsewhere. Together, the essays provide both a new perspective on postwar Europe and a range of models for the historian interested in using the transnational approach.

This anthology of fourteen original essays is the first collection of transnational studies on postD1945 western and eastern European society written by historians. The contributors target three particular moments of rapid change in postwar Europe-the moment of liberation, 1943D48; the 1960s; and 1989 as communism began to crumble. The collection opens a range of possibilities for historians of postD1945 European society, while providing all contemporary historians with a much-needed guide to the methodology of transnational history.