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This book gives an outline of the history of post-war Europe. In roughly chronological order it discusses the main milestones of European history: the aftermath of WWII, the Cold War, the "Culture Wars", Europe after the collapse of Communism etc. The second part gives an account of the political and ideological of developments the author considers crucial. The book is off to a very good start: It stresses the centrality of the Holocaust in making morality and human dignity not just one of many considerations but the very touchestone by which political decisions are supposed to be measured in Europe. Indeed a large part of the book is devoted to investigating the extent to which this principle has been applied by European nations since 1945 and the author passionately criticizes their failures in this respect. It is then all the more disappointing that in the book the universality of this principle is often abandoned in favor of a rather cynical interpretation which, in the case of international affairs, is based on Realpolitik, strategic considerations and, possibly, even ethnic prejudices. An example from domestic affairs is the disrespect towards attempts by either right- or left-of-center movements towards a fairer society. The set-backs (in the author's view) of the social-democratic parties on the one hand and Thatcher's policies on the other are treated in a way that comes close to Schadenfreude. The author does not have to agree with any of these ideologies but he should have assessed them according to the extent to which they they were true to their own underlying moral principles, or, at least, he should respect them for aiming at what they think is a better society. A second example is the glossing over (by omission, relativization or, possibly, denial) of Turkey's attitudes towards human rights and international relations. In fact, it blames Western prejudice for the poor image of the country in these respects, without accounting for the facts (widely known in the international press) that have caused this poor image: the Armenian Genocide (enclosed in quotation marks in the book) and Turkey's continuous refusal to acknowledge it, the often brutal suppression of the Kurdish minority, the serious problems facing non-Muslims etc. The book does not mention at all important facts on Turkey, such as the suppression of non-Muslim educational and religious institutions, the 1945 "property tax" designed to target non-Muslim minorities and the 1955 pogroms against Christians and Jews. In all that, the book is not unique. The nihilism in domestic affairs and the selective downplaying of specific people's or nations' actions that would normally be condemned is all too common. However, for a book that begins by showing so convincingly the importance of Morality, historical Memory and the priority of preventing all human suffering, it is deeply disappointing.