The geography of modern Europe is the result of the interaction of many different and often violent historical processes, which have combined to produce a diverse patterning of people and place. Despite the radical project of political and economic integration, the subject of cultural, political and economic diversity is nevertheless of importance throughout the continent. Rather, EU policies make the patterns even more perplexing as peoples and places interact in different ways with the processes of integration. Examining the cultural and economic complexity that is modern Europe, this work shows how this diversity has always been a principle characteristic of European society, and discusses the ways in which nationalism and the nation-state emerged as one means of controlling that heterogeneity - if only for a while. It goes on to argue that identity in modern Europe is again becoming multi-faceted, and concludes that the continent's geographies can be defined only through inclusivist multiculturalism.
The hope for modern Europe is that this plurality and diversity are represented not as unbridgable fissures between peoples, but as manifestations of our mutual dependence in making sure that the nightmares of our past are never revealed.