This book looks at European societies at the end of a turbulent millennium which saw western Europe slowly rise to global domination, and then rapidly decline to its present position, one that is prosperous but behind the USA in world influence. It is the only book by a single sociologist to make a systematic comparison of virtually all west European countries in relation to Japan and the USA, and across a wide range of social institutions.About the Author: Colin Crouch is Professor of Sociology at the European University Institute, Florence. He is the author or editor of numerous publications including Reinventing Collective Action (edited with David Marquand), Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity (edited with W. Streeck), and Industrial Relations and European State Traditions, which won the Political Studies Association W.J.M. MacKenzie Prize for 1993.