5000 concepts for Europe: update 2019/03/04

About one year ago, I launched the idea of a book listing the “5000 concepts that EVERY European should know”

In the last six months, for both personal and professional reason, I have not had any time to devote to this project. Today, I finally downloaded and reformatted all the suggestions received so far, and this (especially with the European Elections coming in less than 3 months) is the very interesting result.

Before checking the suggestions…

As of today, the most voted suggestions for 5000 Concepts for Europe are…

almost one thousand! The full list, as of today, is downloadable in plain text format here. These are the most voted concepts:

5000 concepts for Europe: update 2019/03/04 /img/tell-me-again-5kconcepts.big.jpg
  • 8 Votes: Enlightenment
  • 7 Votes: Charles De Gaulle
  • 6 Votes:
  • Council Of Europe
  • Leonardo Da Vinci
  • Reformation
  • Romani People
  • 5 Votes:
  • Circular Economy
  • French Revolution
  • Gdpr (General Data Protection Regulation)
  • Internet Of Things
  • Iron Curtain
  • Marxism
  • Net Neutrality
  • 4 Votes:
  • Brexit
  • Digital Single Market
  • European Commission
  • Feminism
  • Gender Parity
  • If This Is A Man (Novel)
  • Indoeuropeans
  • Isaac Newton
  • Lisbon Treaty
  • Maastricht Treaty
  • Margaret Thatcher
  • Numeracy
  • Open Hardware
  • Perestrojka
  • Privacy
  • Religious Freedom
  • Scouting
  • Warsaw Pact
  • World War II
  • Yalta Conference

Other interesting entries include…

Quotes about Europe, e.g.:

  • “European Identity, It Seems, Is Only Perceived By Educated People. And That Is Sad, But It Is A Start.” ― Umberto Eco
  • “Europe Will Not Be Made All At Once, Or According To A Single Plan. It Will Be Built Through Concrete Achievements Which First Create A De Facto Solidarity” - Robert Schuman

but also EU agencies of all sorts, from EMA to Frontex, politicians and political parties (so far, more on the right than on the left “front”), crucial battles and treaties in european history, non-european events or groups from Boko Haram to Bretton Woods, novels, scientific laws… again, please download the full list and then add yourself whatever you think is missing, as explained below.

The best way to contribute YOUR suggestions:

First of all, remember that you can do as many suggestions you want, including concepts already present in this list! Personally, I suggest to do it as follows. You will be surprised to see how quick (and fun!!) it can be:

  • consider all the GENERAL topics you care about and/or know well (e.g.: modern art, Danish politics, geography, sci-fi, medioeval history, software, whatever, really…)
  • for each topic, figure out what you consider the most important concepts in that field
  • enter all those concepts in the “5000 Concepts for Europe” form. If you thought of more than 5 concepts, just reload the form until you are done
  • repeat for the next topic