For many years, the term "fin de siecle" has been used to imply a state of decadence which was thought to have pervaded 'civilized' European society in the years around 1900. This volume of essays, which draws on a very wide range of disciplines, argues that the period was also one of dramatic constructive change.

This was the period of the rise of the giant corporation, of mass production and mass consumption, and of the development of the generation and distribution of electrical energy. Great strides were made in the advance of mechanical road transport and in aviation. Novel social features such as mass politics, mass media, and mass sport involved the body of ordinary people who were themselves becoming active participants in public affairs, popular culture and leisure. In the arts, literature, aesthetics and philosophy, complex reactions to contemporary social reality were aroused and expressed. This was also the period which gave birth to the study of quantum mechanics, relativity physics, the new exploration of mental processes and the systematic study of genetics.

This volume forms part of a sequence of collections of essays which began with "The Enlightenment in national context" (1981) and has continued with "Romanticism in national context" (1988). In preparation are "The Renaissance in national context," "The national question in Europe in historical context," and "The scientific revolution in national context." The purpose of these and other envisaged collections is to bring together comparative, national and interdisciplinary approaches to the history of great movements in the development of human thought and action.