The comparative analysis of historical change: nation-building in the Western world.

Adore historical studies are needed of the processes of nation-building and national integration in Western Europe. The basic research, whether within a single nation (as most historical studies will be) or comparative between nations, calls for fuller co-operation between historians and other social scientists. It is useful to recall some of the characteristics of the work by most professional historians, so as to minimize the illusions that may plague efforts at needed co-operation. One series of studies now under way brings together people of a number of disciplines and many nations in historical and current analysis of the all-too-little-known politics of the smaller European democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]