This special issue of Cultural Studies from 1989 looks at European Identities. The editor remakes that putting together a 'European Issue' for this journal proved to be a very intriguing task—not least because of the complexity of what 'Europe' means. Europe is not just a geographical site, it is also an idea: an idea inextricably linked with the myths of western civilization, and its implications not only of culture but also of colonialism. Twentieth-century Europe is also a political and historical reality that continues to be marked by the deeply traumatic experiences of World War II and the drawing of the Iron Curtain—a continent whose century-long world hegemony was gradually taken over by the United States on the one side, and the Soviet Union on the other.