A Cape of Asia : Essays on European History

Abstract

A Cape of Asia collects eighteen of Wesseling? finest essays on European History, clustered around three concerns: The Wider View, or the historical European perspective on globalization, migration and decolonization; Europe? Identity, reflecting the shift from Eurocentrism to Americanization and Europe? acceptance of Japan, China and India as new key players in the global economy; and European Ideas about Education, Science, and Art. The third section includes the articles ?ohan Huizinga and the Spirit of the Nineteen Thirties??and ?he Expansion of Europe and the Development of Science and Technology?? A small cape of Asia was how Paul Val矇ry described Europe in 1919 ??a pointed summary of the new mood that came over Europe in the interbellum years. Wesseling? essays hold to the original sense of the word: personal reflections on vast subjects written for an intellectual and interested but not necessarily specialized readership.