In 2005, the Dutch referendum on whether to ratify the treaty establishing a European constitution dramatically exposed the rift between political and public opinion in European policymaking. Additionally, the referendum demonstrated that politicians had failed to function as adequate links between Europe as an entity and its Dutch citizens. Against this turbulent background, the authors analyze the European Union’s relative lack of legitimacy in the Netherlands and advise how its image might earn more popular appeal by going beyond traditional institutional approaches.

This book argues that the provenance of early modern and medieval objects from Islamic lands was largely forgotten until the "long" eighteenth century, when the first efforts were made to reconnect them with the historical contexts in which they were produced. For the first time, these Islamicate objects were read, studied and classified – and given a new place in history. Freed by scientific interest, they were used in new ways and found new homes, including in museums. More generally, the process of "rediscovery" opened up the prehistory of the discipline of Islamic art history and had a significant impact on conceptions of cultural boundaries, differences and identity. The book will be of interest to scholars working in the history of art, the art of the Islamic world, early modern history and art historiography.

The book aims rethinking the cultural history of Mediterranean nationalisms between 19th and 20th centuries by tracing their specific approach to antiquity in the forging of a national past. By focusing on how national imaginaries dealt with this topic and how history and archaeology relied on antiquity, this collection of essays introduces a comparative approach presenting several cases studies concerning many regions including Spain, Italy and Slovenia as well as Albania, Greece and Turkey. By adopting the perspective of a dialogue among all these Mediterranean political cultures, this book breaks significantly new ground, because it shifts attention on how Southern Europe nationalisms are an interconnected political and cultural experience, directly related to the intellectual examples of Northern Europe, but also developing its own particular trends. Contributors are: Çiğdem Atakuman, Filippo Carlà, Francisco Garcia Alonso, Maja Gori, Eleni Stefanou, Rok Stergar, Katia Visconti.

This book discusses the role of Islam in the political and social developments in the Balkans after the fall of communism. It explores comparatively the transformations of Muslim identities under the influence of various national and transnational, domestic and global factors.

The authors of the International Style Library turn their attention to the land east of the Danube as they travel through Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and the surrounding countryside to find in the architecture, interiors, and folk arts of the region a host of thriving design traditions accessible again after a long isolation.Full-color photographs.