European History Online is published by the Leibniz Institute for European History (Institut für Europäische Geschichte) in Mainz. Materials included on the site are originally displayed in German, but may also be accessed in English, an advantage for English-only readers. Proposed articles for inclusion in the journal may be submitted in either German or English, a feature of the site's multinational orientation. Journal officials are seeking to publish 200 peer-reviewed articles by 2013. In an attempt to take “full advantage of the Internet's multimedia potential,” published articles at European History Online are linked to “images, primary sources, statistics, animated and interactive maps, as well as audio and video clips.” Visitors to the site will find the journal's interactive features particularly useful, providing, as they do, support for reading and digesting the provocative articles published by European History Online.

Edited by Professors Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann, European History Online sets for itself the worthy goal of exploring “500 years of modern European history [1450–1950] by transcending national, disciplinary and nationalistic boundaries.” In order to accomplish this goal, the editors and their management team use ten “thematic threads” to “tie together processes of intercultural exchange whose influence extends beyond national and cultural borders.” The site's thematic threads are listed as: “Theories and Methods”; “Backgrounds”; “Crossroads”; “Models and Stereotypes”; “Europe on the Road”; “European Media”; “European Networks”; “Transnational Organizations and Movements”; “Alliances and Wars”; and “Europe and the World.”

In his “Overview” of European History Online, Joachim Berger (listed on the masthead as a senior member of the management team), characterizes the site as a “history of modern Europe from the perspectives of communications and transfer.” Although Berger presents visitors to European History with a long and in-depth discussion of the goals the creators of the site are seeking to realize, this reviewer found Berger's discussion somewhat difficult to follow. He suggests, for instance, that the thread “Theories and Methods” “presents methodological and theoretical approaches that are crucial to a transcultural history of Europe,” and that the thread “Backgrounds” “addresses the factors and actors which shaped Europe as communicative space”—already elements of a highly theoretical description—and then goes on to say, rather obliquely in this reviewer's opinion, that these two threads “explain the prerequisites for and conditions of ‘transfer processes.’” This idea of transfer seems to be foundational to the overarching vision of European History Online, defined as follows:

Although Berger goes on to identify three “central questions” that “guide the thematic threads and the individual proposals to European History Online”—“the question of the content of the transfers”; “the question of the role and function of mediators”; and “the question of the forms of and criteria for appropriation or rejection in the various receiving systems”—it was never clear to this reviewer precisely what Berger meant when he defined “different cultures” as “interpretive systems.” It seems that this poststructuralist characterization of cultures as interpretive systems—ever in flux, one must conclude—is closely tied to the claim that European History Online “deals with ‘Europe’ not as a geographical or political given.” “Ever since the fifteenth century,” says Berger,

This last statement is instructive, especially its reference to Europe becoming a “tangible, historiographic category for the organisation of space” during and after the fifteenth-century. In a sense, the project of European History Online seems less involved with exploring European history, and more concerned with raising historiographic questions. Indeed, this appears to be the implicit claim being made when the editors respond to the question of why the journal only deals with the 500-year-period of European History extending from 1450 to 1950 by saying that the “cut-off point is around 1950” because of “the project's decidedly ‘historical’ emphasis.” The scare quotes marking out the “historical” emphasis of the journal, in this reviewer's opinion, are included as a way of suggesting that European History Online is involved in determining how the “various strands of Europeanisation” were defined before post-1950s Europeanization “fed into the process of economic and political integration”—thus, what may be understood as historiographic inquiry into the invention of “Europe.”

Readers who visit European History Online are greeted with a wonderfully designed home page. The ten “Threads” are listed as links—each accompanied by a thoughtfully chosen image—along with an explanation of their focus. The “Theories and Methods” link, for example, with its image of a 1547 woodcut of Cicero composing a letter in his library, carries the description “Methodological and theoretical approaches to a transcultural history of Europe,” and readers are provided with a “Read More” link that explains the thread in more detail. Articles specifically oriented toward religious studies, although limited, are included in the topic lists of a number of threads: “Crossroads,” for instance, includes articles on “Islam,” “Hasidism,” “Anglicanism,” and “Lutheranism,” while “Backgrounds” includes a major article on “Religion,” to be published in 2013.

Although in attempting to be as inclusive and as interdisciplinary as possible, the editors at European History Online may, perhaps, have made it somewhat difficult for visitors to decipher the lay of their electronic land, there is so much of value that awaits the committed reader that it is well worth the effort that is required to take full advantage of the site. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students, knowledgeable history enthusiasts, and scholars will certainly appreciate the site. In this reviewer's opinion, those involved in designing, editing, and contributing to European History Online have much of which to be proud.