The Culture of Western Europe: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries was published by Rand McNally in 1961, originally conceived as a textbook for Mosse’s courses at the University of Wisconsin. It grew into something larger: a comprehensive intellectual history of modern Europe that treated political ideologies not as abstract systems of thought but as cultural phenomena — expressions of deeper attitudes toward nature, society, the body, and the sacred.
Mosse’s approach to intellectual history was distinctive: he was interested not in what philosophers argued in their treatises but in what ordinary people believed and how those beliefs shaped their actions. His treatment of nationalism, for example, emphasizes not the theoretical writings of Fichte or Mazzini but the popular literature, the festivals, the monuments, and the educational practices through which national identity was actually constructed in the minds of millions.
The book covers liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, racism, and fascism — treating each as a cultural system rather than merely a political program. Its influence on the teaching of European history was considerable: it taught a generation of students to think about politics culturally and about culture politically.
Collecting The Culture of Western Europe
First edition (Rand McNally, Chicago, 1961): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition: $15–$40
- Revised editions (1974, 1988): $8–$20