How we are, or how we say that we are: The post–war comparative politics of Hans Daadler and others

. This article reviews Comparative European Politics: The Story of a Profession (London: Pinter 1997 and 1999), edited by Hans Daalder, one of the fathers of contemporary comparative politics. Such a volume is the collection of the autobiographies of almost all the major scholars of comparative European politics during the post–war period. It can be considered a non tedious way of getting a picture of the sub–field. What is the European comparative politics that emerges from these autobiographies? In reviewing the book the answer is provided through the analysis of four main features: first, what are the themes and methods that prevail; second, is it possible to single out the factors which form the basis of the growth in the field?— a question Daalder also asks; third, what are the “lessons” to be learnt from these scholars; and fourth, what are the most evident and noteworthy differences that exist between the work of the scholars who wrote a contribution for this book and those of the younger generations.