Waning Europeanness? from the warring totalitarian shadows of the past to the illiberal threats of the present

José Sardica, Sarah Durelle-Marc

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Abstract

Lecture by José Miguel Sardica, Associate Professor of History at the Faculty of Human Sciences and the Institute for Political Studies of the Catholic University of Portugal.Various civilizational problems that Europe struggles with stem primarily from a lack of memory. The ‘safe haven’ that the European founding fathers built to oppose and avoid the darkest period (1914-1945) ever lived by our fissile continent has withered away, replaced by a present day much disunited Europe, cherished by sceptics and inflated by radical adversaries. In a world where the (so-called) ‘rest’ is challenging the ‘West’, Europe’s moral, religious, ethical and civilizational legacy and way of living face discontents everywhere. To re-boost Europhilia against widespread Europhobia, Europeans have to reconsider anew those structural ingredients and conquests that have been the driving pillars of European life, one such pillar being humanism. However, and throughout various historical periods, it was that same humanism that succumbed before inhumane existential immorality, collective nihilism, extremism, violence, war, genocide, dictatorship, political and diplomatic unilateralism, crisis, poverty and desperation.The lecture will be introduced by Sarah Durelle-Marc, Associate Professor at the Law Faculty of the Catholic University of Lille and coordinator of the first course of the summer school program on the contribution of history to European consciousness.
Original languageEnglish
Pages17-35
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jul 2021

Keywords

  • Europe
  • Europeanness
  • Totalitarianism
  • Illiberalism
  • Past and present
  • History

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