Sixty Years, New Frontiers

In the 60 years since Time first published an Atlantic edition, we've covered wars, revolutions and their aftermath — the hard years following World War II; the tension of the cold war and, later, its end; revolution in Hungary; the long miserable war of the Yugoslav succession in the Balkans. But Europe is now prosperous[an error occurred while processing this directive] and at peace, so when we sat down to consider what should be a theme for our 60th anniversary issue, we didn't want to dwell on either the force of arms or politics. We were conscious that Europe had changed, and in many ways for the better — but we knew that it still had great challenges ahead. So we set out to produce an issue with the theme Europe's New Frontiers.

Jim Ledbetter, a senior editor of Time Atlantic who masterminded the project, says, "From the beginning, when we asked writers to suggest stories, it became clear that we were asking people to think of frontiers in an entirely different way. The suggestions were so strong and varied that I knew we'd hit on a powerful idea." Business writer Peter Gumbel, for example, had a look at what the line between East and West means now by visiting Estonia — a nation in which he had first spent time 16 years ago, when it was part of the Soviet Union. Since establishing its independence, the country has been dramatically successful in building both its economy and a technologically sophisticated workforce. Gumbel was struck by how much Eastern Europe has to teach the West: "When the head of the biggest bank in the country is only 35," says Gumbel, "there's something quite fascinating going on."

Berlin bureau chief Andrew Purvis looked at a different kind of line — that separating faith and the state — and found it blurring in both Germany and Turkey. "Secularism," says Purvis, "is no longer taken for granted in either place." Paris correspondent Bruce Crumley studied a reverse migration — not Muslims moving to Europe, but French expatriates settling in Morocco. "The Mediterranean frontier is obviously becoming more porous," he says, "but the nature of the flow differs radically based on the direction in which one travels."

We didn't want to limit our sense of new frontiers to high politics and economics, which is why you'll find pieces in this issue on food, art — and the family. Senior editor Catherine Mayer examined the way in which the traditional family — once at the very heart of many European nations — is being replaced by something different: "A comforting sprawl of co-opted friends and family members acquired by divorce and remarriage." Increasing longevity, says Mayer, "means families extend vertically through generations as well as horizontally."

A project of this scope requires considerable team planning and effort, and I'm enormously grateful to all the writers, reporters, editors, photographers, picture editors, art directors and researchers who worked on this anniversary issue. Ledbetter says the aim of the project was to "capture what Europe is really about today." That it does, but lest that seem too serious, Jim also says that putting the issue together was "hugely enjoyable." We hope that sense of enjoyment comes across to you.

Michael Elliott, Editor, Time International