ABSTRACT
The argument underlying this volume is simply stated. History, that is the occurrences of the past, is widely used to fulfil a number of major modern functions, one of which is shaping socio-cultural place-identities in support of particular state structures. Such deliberate use of aspects of the past is neither new nor confined to Europe, but the particular political situation in which Europe finds itself at the end of the twentieth century offers the unique challenge of using European history to support the shaping of a new continental political entity. If this opportunity is to be utilized, it is first necessary to move from practice to theory: what is occurring, and probably in one form or another has always occurred, must first be understood before such deliberate and goal-directed intervention in the use of the past is possible.
