Does generation matter : progressive democratic cultures in Western Europe 1945 1960 “Generation” has become a central concept of cultural historical and social studies. This book analyses how this concept is currently used and how it relates to memory and constructions of historical meaning from educational historical legal and political perspectives. Attempts to compare different national generations or to elaborate boundary crossing transnational generations still constitute an exception. In trying to fill this gap this collection of essays concentrates on one crucial moment of “the age of extremes” and on one specific generation: the year 1945 and its progressive politicians and intellectuals. Focusing on Italy West Germany and France it suggests that the concept of generation should be regarded as an open question in space and time. Therefore this volume asks what role generation played in the intellectual and political debates of 1945: if it facilitated change if it served as source of solidarity and cohesion and how post war societies organized their time Part I. Does Generation Matter Progressive Democratic Cultures in Western Europe 1945 1960 Chapter 1 Introduction: Generation as an Open Question; Jens Späth Chapter 2 Towards a New Political Culture Totalitarian Experience and Democratic Reconstruction after 1945; Andreas Wirsching Part II. Intellectuals Science and Democracy Chapter 3 The Original 45ers. A European “Generation of Resistance”; Dominik Rigoll Chapter 4 Continuity in rupture. The Italian and German constitutional culture after 1945; Maurizio Cau Chapter 5 Toward a New Political Science in Italy and West Germany After 1945: Democracy Politics and Generational Change; Gabriele D’Ottavio Part III. Progressive Party Politics Chapter 6 Lost Generation Nicolò Carandini the Decline of New Liberalism and the Myth of a New Europe; Christian Blasberg Chapter 7 Old and New Democracy. Placing the Italian Anomaly in a European Context; Jan de Graaf Chapter 8 Inheriting Horror: Historical Memory in French Socialists’ and German Social Democrats’ Fight for European Democracy 1945 1958; Brian Shaev Chapter 9 Two Difficult Outsiders Antifascism Antinazism and Democracy in Lelio Basso and Wilhelm Hoegner; Jens Späth Chapter 10 European Socialism and the French German Reconciliation; Christine Vodovar Chapter 11 Conclusions: Five Dimensions of Generation around 1945; Jens Späth