Why write a book called Europe since 1980? What is Europe? And why focus on 1980? Was 1980 a turning point in the history of the old continent? This volume attempts to answer these questions, pointing to both global changes and unique European developments that were the main factors, as manifold as they were interrelated, in the dawning of a new historical period.

The first of these factors in order of importance, though not in chronological order, was the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union, and consequently the division of Europe. This had an overwhelming impact on every aspect of post-1990–1 Europe. Europe became a safer place and more united. A failed system disappeared and half of the continent emerged onto the road of a difficult but promising transformation. However, the western half of Europe also changed. The half-century-long rivalry between capitalism and socialism during the Cold War influenced Western society and politics. Besides the very visible arms race and the sometimes hysterical witch-hunting, the challenge of socialism inspired social awareness as well as a “social market” policy. This political competition had a long history, stemming from Chancellor Otto Bismarck's social insurance policy that he instituted to take the wind out of the sails of the rising social democratic movement in late-nineteenth-century Germany.