Conclusions: the societies of europe and europe as a society in the twentieth century

By way of concluding this volume, it is obviously not possible to provide a condensed and accurate but easily digestible version of the hundreds of preceding pages. Rather, an attempt is made to address some of the major problems related to the interpretations of the social history of twentieth-century Europe. First, the temporal ruptures of the last century and the spatial structure of the continent are considered. Then, we deal with several key accounts of the theme. Finally, we provide an overview of the lessons of this volume with regard to the possibilities and limits of writing a social history of contemporary Europe.