In his Afterword to The Global Age, Ian Kershaw weighs in on many trends that were contemporary to Europe at the time of the book’s composition in 2017. These range from positive developments such as the end of police states, poverty reduction, and relative peace within Europe to the destabilizing forces of turbo-capitalism, the spread of computer-driven automation and mass migration to other challenges such as an unrealized European identity and the related trend toward nationalism and rise of the far-right and global warming in an energy-hungry world. He concludes with the following reflection:
What will happen in the decades to come is impossible to know. The only certainty is uncertainty. Insecurity will remain a hallmark of the Global Age. Europe’s ups and downs, shaped in its recent history in good measure by events outside the continent, are sure to continue.
Now that we are nearing the close of the semester and have already past into a new decade since the conclusion of his study, it is time for you to weigh in.
The final assignment asks you to write a new Afterword, weighing in on what has happened in Europe over seven years since The Global Age was published. Do Kershaw’s conclusions still hold up? What unanticipated has happened since now and then? What do you see as the path of Europe, however you define it, since 2017 and what might that tell us about its future course over the next decade?
A good Afterword will:
Trace at least three themes in Europe’s experience of the last seven years
Incorporating and quoting a wide range (at least five) of contemporary sources including journals, periodicals, newspapers, reputable blogs, and other written or recorded sources
While showing a good understanding not only of Kershaw’s original Afterword, but also other key relevant themes in the book. (This is a history class! Trace the historical roots of contemporary issues at least a few decades back.)
It will also run at least 700 words.
All papers must include a title, the cleverer the better.
All quotes must be footnoted. All sources used must also be included in a bibliography at the end. For more on format, consult the Chicago Manual of StyleLinks to an external site. and ask me if you need further clarification, especially on unconventional sources.
Feel free to use the sources you used for your Ukraine War essay as a starting point. However, this cannot only be about that war.
Use European sources for this! Good sites to consult include EuropeNowLinks to an external site., EurozineLinks to an external site., European newspapers (Der Spiegel English, Le Monde English, The Kyiv Independent, New Eastern Europe, BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, Financial Times, Die Zeit English, many, many others.), various European history and contemporary European politics academic journals. Just be sure your sources are not tabloids, clickbait, or hyperpartisan drivel.
