Search results

Relying on internal sources, Wilfried Loth analyses the birth and subsequent development of the European Union, from the launch of the Council of Europe and the Schuman Declaration until the Euro crisis and the contested European presidential election of Jean-Claude Juncker. This book shines a light on the crises of the European integration, such as the failure of the European Defence Community, De Gaulle's empty chair policy, or the rejection of the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands, but also highlights the indubitable successes that are the Franco-German reconciliation, the establishment of the European common market, and the establishment of an expanding common currency. What this study accomplishes, for the first time, is to illuminate the driving forces behind the European integration process and how it changed European politics and society.

"A Social History of Twentieth-Century Europe offers a systematic overview on major aspects of social life, including population, family and households, social inequalities and mobility, the welfare state, work, consumption and leisure, social cleavages in politics, urbanization as well as education, religion and culture. It also addresses major debates and diverging interpretations of historical and social research regarding the history of European societies in the past one hundred years. Organized in ten thematic chapters, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach, making use of the methods and results of not only history, but also sociology, demography, economics and political science. Béla Tomka presents both the diversity and the commonalities of European societies looking not just to Western European countries, but Eastern, Central and Southern European countries as well. A perfect introduction for all students of European history."--Publisher's website.

"This book focuses on why the diffusion of the political theology of royal wisdom created 'Solomonic' princes with intellectual interests all around the medieval West and how these learned rulers changed the face of western Europe through their policies and the cultural power of medieval monarchy. Princely wisdom narratives have been seen simply as a tool of royal propaganda in the Middle Ages but these narratives were much more than propaganda, being rather a coherent ideology which transformed princely courts, shaped mentalities, and influenced key political decisions. This cultural power of medieval monarchy was channelled mainly through princely patronage of learning and the arts, but the rise of administrative monarchy and its bureaucracy are equally related to these policies. This can only be understood through a cultural approach to the history of medieval politics, that is, a history of the relationship between knowledge and power in the Middle Ages, a topic much analysed regarding the medieval Church but sometimes neglected in the princely sphere. This volume is a study supplies an important comparative study of the reception in princely courts of a key aspect of European medieval civilization: the ideal of Christian sapiential rulership and its corollary, rationality in government. This volume is essential reading to for students and scholars interested in understanding the medieval roots of the cultural process which gave rise to the modern state"--

With the European Union making the rapid steps forward, there has been a permanent demand for precise knowledge of history of unified Europe. One still wonders how did the Romans manage to build Pax Romana, which was a bit more a commonwealth than an Empire. With Western and Eastern Europe now motivated firmly to build a common European house, these ideas seem to be quite interesting. As to Georgia, being a member of the Council of Europe, moving rapidly toward NATO, she had the same aspirations toward the Graeco-Roman World. This article deals with what can be labeled as making of Europe.