ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the contribution towards a comparative history of European Societies. People studying the humanities are constantly grouping together under the expression 'the comparative method' two widely different intellectual processes. One of the most impressive successes of the comparative method has been the delimitation of the Indo-European group, the reconstruction - no doubt hypothetical, yet based on well-founded conjecture - of the basic forms of the original Indo-European language. The chapter compares the various European societies - especially in Eastern and Central Europe - societies that are contemporary, that live close to one another, and that go back if not to one common origin, at any rate to several. The comparative history will thus become easier to understand and to serve, and will inspire local studies with its own spirit - those local studies without which it is powerless, but which can themselves only come to fruition with its help.
