Europe since the Seventies

摘要

In his most recent book, Jeremy Black sets out to challenge the conventional periodisation of contemporary European history. Starting in 1970, rather than 1945, he divides the Cold War in two. Instead of finishing off in 1989, or 2000, he takes his narrative well into the year 2008. One of his reasons for this unusual practice is a pragmatic one. Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the age of nuclear deterrence is as remote to the students of the year 2009 as Napoleon or Julius Caesar. Taking their perspective seriously, he seeks to cater to their need for a historical coverage of a more recent past. A second reason is a historiographical one. The immediate post-war period until 1970 was an era of clean-cut political divisions, of unprecedented growth and optimism, at least in Western Europe. A story starting in 1970 would be quite different. It would be characterised by political change-starting with the fall of the authoritarian regimes in Southern Europe-by recurrent economic crises, and by the dual challenge of globalisation and relative decline.