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A generation of scholars in America and Europe revisited and re-analyzed the experience of democratic government in Western Europe since 1945. In a process of rapid internationalization, they went beyond the single-country perspectives of some of the larger European states, which traditionally had dominated the study of comparative government. Developing new theories and typologies, using new research techniques and data, they laid the foundations for comparative European politics as a thriving area in modern political science. This text presents a portrait of a profession, through four intellectual biographies of leading scholars in the field. It shows how particular experiences turned them towards the study of politics. It describes the "personal" and "academic" milieus in which they developed as scholars, singling out important sources of intellectual inspiration and special political experiences. The work also describes the scholarly infrastructure for genuinely international research, and offers stories of academic careers, of achievements and of doubts, of lessons learned or imparted.