European History: Lessons for the 21st Century: Essays from the 3rd International Conference on European History (original) (raw)

It is with a great deal of pride and pleasure that we are publishing the fifth publication of the Athens Institute for Education and Research in the field of historical studies. It is a collection of essays from the Institute’s Third International Conference on European History, held in Athens on December 28 and 30, 2005. For the last three years, the inclusion of an annual history conference in December has filled a lacuna in the conference and publication activities of the Athens Institute. While some would consider history to be a superfluous discipline without application to the present and future, we at the Athens Institute consider it essential to knowledge and understanding in the social sciences, education, the media, and the humanities. Consciously and unconsciously we scholars in other disciplines often use past experiences as frames of reference for the study of current and future trends in our investigations of state, society, economy and culture. Historians dare to continue the research of past developments, not only recording events and trends, but also interpreting and reinterpreting them using both traditional and innovative methodologies. Good historians, like good social scientists, conduct their research in the philosophical search for the truth. While the passage of time and the accumulation of events often make this search elusive, historians nevertheless persevere in asking basic questions such as: What really happened? What significance did it have? How should we view the past? In pursuing these and other questions in studying the broad flows or narrow rivulets of history, historians are conducting an important service not only to other scholars but also to humankind in general. They are providing us with a collective memory. Just as an individual who loses his memory is lost, so too communities, societies, nations, and humankind would be lost without a memory; that is, a collective view of the past, which historians provide. All knowledge can be used for good or ill. History, at its worst, can be misused to whip up national, class or ethnic animosities, to foster chauvinism and racism, or to further specific ideologies. At its best, however, history can serve as both an unbiased tapestry of the past, in which we can view the successes and failures of our ancestors and thus gain an understanding of our present condition. Most historians do not believe that their discipline can be used to make specific decisions or policies for the present or future. Instead, they believe that history provides broad counsel on the past experiences of human states, societies, economies and cultures which can be applied in the present only with the understanding of human behaviour. The past cannot be reduced down to formulae or maxims. The scholars who have presented papers at this conference and have contributed essays to this volume provide us with a multifaceted mosaic of ancient and modern history of this, the European continent. They include studies of culture such as architecture, art, drama, literature, and philosophy. They also include investigations into the political, social and economic events and trends of the European past. In organizing our third historical conference and publishing its third collection of historical studies, the Athens Institute for Education and Research had the help of a number of groups and individuals. As director of the institute, I wish to thank the Athens Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Athens for co-organizing the conference and providing its venue. Gratitude must also go to the General Secretariat for the Olympic Games of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and to the Greek National Tourist Organization for their kind sponsorship of the event. I also wish thank the Scientific and Organizing Committee of the Conference, consisting of scholars from Greece, the United Kingdom and the United States for their efforts in making this conference a success. I also wish to thank the regular and volunteer staff of the Athens Institute for Education and Research for their hours of hard work in the preparation, the implementation, and the subsequent work of our first historical conference. And finally, I would like to thank Professor Nicholas Pappas, for agreeing to edit and prepare this present volume for publication.