Taming the European Leviathan

What is Europe? When studying post-war Europe, the focus is on ideological divisions, competing economic models and on the different political systems separating Western and Eastern Europe. The EU-funded LEVIATHAN project challenges existing east-west interpretations of European identity. Rather than studying postwar Europe’s two halves separately, we aim to understand Europe as one. European history, we argue, is characterised by a preoccupation with health as the common good. By taking medicine as an analytical lens, we will develop a common history of Europe beyond the usual east-west dichotomy. LEVIATHAN takes a multidisciplinary approach: neither economics nor politics nor ideology nor everyday life, but an integration of these perspectives makes it possible to understand the pursuit of the European common good.