The collected papers of Dietmar Rothermund, emeritus professor of South Asian History, Heidelberg University, contain texts on Indian, European and Global History. Among them is an essay on Akbar and Philip II of Spain comparing their strategies of imperial consolidation, a study of Mumbai from fishing village to metropolis, a critique of the sustainability of Asian environments and societies, a survey of Hinduism and its politics and economy, an assessement of the self-consciousness of post imperial nations concerning six nation which lost their colonies after World War II, an analysis of nationalism and the reconstruction of traditions in Asia and several other themes. The ten contributions have been written in the years from 1997 to the present.