A Negotiated Truce The Battle of Waterloo in European Memory since the Second World War

The article examines the commemoration of Waterloo (1815) since the Second World War by placing the battle's polyvalent image in the context of European integration. To this end it traces the cultural significance of Waterloo in regional, national, transnational and international perspective to elucidate the longevity of the event as a lieu de memoire, and then argues that even now the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars remain in some respects an unmastered past because of uncertainty in European public memory about how to commemorate these conflicts.