Experiencing Europe: 50 Years of European Construction 1957-2007 (review)

Wilfried Loth's impressive edited volume comes at an important juncture in the history of European integration and has the commendable aim of contributing to a "clarification of the European horizon." The seven chapters are divided along logical themes that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the research groups who contributed to a number of seminars and roundtables spread over two years, culminating in the Rome colloquium in 2007. The contributions are from nineteen prominent historians or political scientists drawn from seven countries. Most of the contributors are senior academics who grew up as European integration was moving ahead. The book therefore offers the collective benefits of many years of research.

The volume is divided into seven parts: the balance of historiography by Jost Dülffer and N. Piers Ludlow; a chapter on the development of economic integration by Eric Bussière, Michel Dumoulin, and Sylvain Schirmann; a chapter on European institutions and political integration by Marie-Thérèse Bitsch andWilfried Loth; four contributions on the construction of a European public sphere by Hartmut Kaelble, Luisa Passerini, Marie-Françoise Lévy, Marie-Noële Sicard, and Robert Frank; a chapter on the problems of social Europe by Antonio Varsori and Josefina Cuesta Bustillo; two contributions on Europe as international actor by Gérard Bossuat and Anne Deighton; and the experience of enlargements by Johnny Laursen, Anne Faber, and Antoine Marès. In each case the purpose was to consider a common theme from a multinational perspective.

Experiencing Europe can be read in several ways. One could dip into it according to the titles suggested above, but specialists in each of the headings might find little that is new. The full richness of the book emerges when read as a complete work. Indeed, only when it is read in this manner does the idea of the European experience emerge. The authors, to their collective credit, resist writing histories of the specific subthemes (although some resist the temptation less strongly than others). Instead, they seek to identify constants as well as transition points that led from the emergence of economic Europe to ideas (albeit premature) of a more political Europe; the turning point of 1961 and the British application for membership; the evolution of European Community institutions, notably the 1966 Luxembourg compromise and the first direct elections to the European parliament; the enlargements in the 1970s and 1980s as well as the more recent waves; and the emergence of European political cooperation in the 1970s and of the Common Foreign and Security Policy two decades later.

Some of the less obvious developments (at least to this reviewer) were fascinating, such as Luisa Passerini's unfortunately brief analysis of the reformulation of the public/ private divide through the media and, in particular, the visual arts. Similarly, Robert Frank's discussion of the superimposition of a European culture on national cultures is superb. Other chapters, such as Antonio Varasi's on European social policy, forcefully remind us of the long and complicated heritage of some of the contemporary debates surrounding the French and Anglo-Saxon social models.

Several contributors, including Jost Dülffer, Gérard Bossaut, and Anne Deighton, make the point that although the volume aims to catch the richness and complexity of the European experience, the story is not solely a European story. The significant role of third parties, such as the Soviet Union, the United States, the Council of Europe, and the European Free Trade Area, in shaping the experience is one of the recurring themes of the volume.

Like any edited volume, the book has a few weaknesses as well as strengths. Most of the contributors are historians, although some are more closely associated with international politics or political science. The differing approaches are evident, and the editors might have done well to integrate the contrasting viewpoints in a more systematic manner. Such eclecticism could be considered a strength rather than a weakness, but because of the interdisciplinary nature of the original undertaking, the...