The issues treated in this volume - romanticism vs. rationalism, nationalism vs. pluralism, militarism vs. humanism, religious/moral values vs. tolerance - are as timely today as they were in the period leading up to the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe. The volume brings together in an easily accessible form the approaches and methodologies of eighteen scholars, each an internationally renowned expert in his or her field, unafraid to evaluate critically ideological streams that were and remain crucial to the progress of modern history.