In order to encourage further research on the expansion of the European elites able to access the processes of political, economic and social decision-making in the 19th and 20th centuries, this volume focuses on their multiple components and on the relationships between them. The essays presented in this volume show how elites coped with the many different new contexts and social movements, this in very different European territories. They demonstrate how in this process a more structured tension between national and transnational dynamics emerged. In effect, this volume offers a vast comparative perspective and highlights the need for new studies on transnational networks of elites, while identifying the appropriate methodology to outline their history as international social actors