Common Roots of Europe

by Bronisław Geremek

Bronislaw Geremek is one of the foremost social historians in Europe today. In this important and wide-ranging book, he explores the emergence of the idea of Europe and its transformation over time.
Geremek shows how, in the Middle Ages, the term 'Europe' first came to be used to indicate a geographical place. It was only towards the end of this period that the concept of a cultural and historical entity called 'Europe' began to take shape, and the term was used more and more widely in historical and philosophical works. He argues that 'Europe' was now no longer synonymous with the word 'Christianity': it had become something more specific.
Geremek claims that, in western Europe today, the sense of belonging to European civilization is felt less strongly than in the countries of central Europe. He suggests that it is in everyone's interests to understand Europe in a wider sense, not just as a geographical concept, but as a political and cultural one too.
He discusses unity, variety and collective identity in medieval Europe, social and economic structures in East and West, and the continuity and change in European identity in the intervening centuries.
The book will be welcomed by students and researchers in medieval history, European Studies, and by anyone interested in the social and cultural history of Europe.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Bronisław Geremek was born as Benjamin Lewertow in Warsaw on 6 March 1932. His father Boruch Lewertow, a fur merchant, was murdered in Auschwitz. His mother, Sharca, and he were smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 and were sheltered by Stefan Geremek. Geremek later married Bronisław's mother and Bronisław was further raised in a Roman Catholic tradition. In his adult life he considered himself neither a Jew nor a Catholic. His grandfather was a maggid, his brother Jerry, living in New York is a Jew and his sons living in Poland are Roman Catholics.

In 1954 Bronisław Geremek graduated from the Faculty of History at the Warsaw University, and in 1956–1958 he completed postgraduate studies at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. He completed his PhD in 1960 and in 1972 he was granted a postdoctoral degree at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). In 1989 he was appointed associate professor.

The chief domain of Geremek's scholarly work was research on the history of culture and medieval society. His scholarly achievements included numerous articles and lectures, as well as ten books, which have been translated into ten languages. His doctoral thesis (1960) concerned the labour market in medieval Paris, including prostitution. His postdoctoral thesis (1972) concerned underworld groups in medieval Paris.

Almost the whole of Geremek's scholarly career was connected with the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he worked from 1955 to 1985. However, from 1960 to 1965 he was a lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris and the manager of the Polish Culture Centre of that university. Geremek was given honorary degrees by the University of Bologna, Utrecht University, the Sorbonne, Columbia University and Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In 1992 he was designated visiting professor at the Collège de France. He was a member of Academia Europea, the PEN Club, the Société Européenne de Culture, fellow of Collegium Invisibile and numerous other societies and associations.

He was a longtime professor and Chairholder of the Chair of European Civilisation at the College of Europe until his death.

He received the Prix Pierre Lafue 1999 for his total oeuvre.