This book presents pertinent questions regarding the current state of the European world as it has evolved since 1989. It provides greater sympathy for the complexity of societies, and argues for greater balance of those that are small, and that do not cast a long shadow in the world today.

1. A New Europe for the Old? 2. The Serbs: The Sweet and Rotten Smell of History 3. Illyrianism and the Croatian Quest for Statehood 4. To Be Or Not To Be Balkan: Romania's Quest for Self-Definition 5. Ukraine: From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State 6. Ethnic Nationalism in the Russian Federation 7. Im Osten viel Neues: Plenty of News from the Eastern Länder 8. Addendum to "Ira Osten viel Neues: Plenty of News from the Eastern Länder” 9. Discourse and (Dis)Integration in Europe: The Cases of France, Germany, and Great Britain 10. The European Debate on Citizenship 11. Has the Nation Died? The Debate over Italy's Identity (and Future) 12. Postwar Europe: The Capriciousness of Universal Values