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AbstractThis article explores whether and how the United Kingdom was destined to Brexit before it even joined the European Communities in 1973. Drawing on archival sources, media reports and literature about Britain's arduous relationship with 'Europe', it argues that four features made the Brexit outcome more likely. They were the accession to the EC as a measure of last resort which prevented the construction of a new sustainable narrative about a brighter future in 'Europe'; the political elites' use of the issue of EC membership or further integration for short term party gains; highly exaggerated hopes that membership in and by itself would cure Britain's economic ills or give it a new global leadership role; and a colonial style diplomacy that severely underestimated Britain's growing dependency on its continental European neighbours. In conclusion, the article argues that it nevertheless required the formation of a parochial political elite of little Englanders to achieve the extreme outcome of Brexit.

La Maison de l'histoire européenne du Parlement européen à Bruxelles, qui a ouvert ses portes en 2017, est le premier musée en Europe consacré à l'histoire de l'Europe moderne. Basé sur une analyse attentive de son exposition permanente, une observation non participante, une analyse documentaire et des entretiens, cet article explore et interprète le maître-récit du musée sur la Première Guerre mondiale, les régimes totalitaires et la Seconde Guerre mondiale, et l'Europe d'après-guerre, ainsi que l'intégration européenne. Il montre comment et pourquoi le musée blâme le nationalisme comme cause fondamentale de conflits et de guerres en Europe. Avec son fort accent sur les similitudes entre le national-socialisme et le stalinisme en tant que régimes d'oppression, il raconte, en outre, une histoire des Européens comme victimes de régimes oppressifs abstraits. Paradoxalement, la Maison de l'histoire européenne utilise ainsi les outils narratifs du nationalisme pour vaincre le nationalisme.

Drawing on archival sources of the European Parliament (EP), the EP Groups, and Spinelli's private papers as well as contemporary media reports and 13 semi-structured interviews with eyewitnesses, this article examines the EP's attempt to foster European union after its first direct election in 1979. In tracing the conflicts and compromises within the EP during the preparation of its Draft Treaty on European Union (DTEU) the article makes a three-fold argument. First, it demonstrates how this internal process enhanced cross-party cooperation on institutional reform in the EP. Second, it shows how the EP's work on institutional reform impacted the inter-institutional dynamics with the European Commission and the European Council. Third, it elaborates how the DTEU, although not ratified, nevertheless constituted an important constitutional marker with long-term effects on European integration until the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.

The European Coal and Steel Community was marked by institutional innovations. They have masked strong continuities in administrative and business communities and their governance practices, however, which persisted after 1945. Based on fresh research in national and international organisation archives, this article explores the origins before, during and after the First World War of two key elements of these practices, their evolution over time and their influence on post-war Western European governance of the steel sector: the struggle for executive autonomy and close transnational industry cooperation. Both practices clashed in the ECSC, became amalgamated and had lasting impact on the present-day European Union and its democratic deficit.

European Union institutions have cultivated narratives of European integration for a long time. For its 2013-14 'A New Narrative for Europe' project, however, the European Commission for the first time explicitly used the 'narrative' label. Drawing on non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and qualitative discourse analysis, this article contrasts the drafting process and the resulting declaration's narrative structure and content with its discussion by citizens in a web-based consultation. The analysis shows that participating citizens forcefully demanded a bottom-up debate and advocated pluralistic perspectives. In these circumstances, elite-driven attempts at strengthening European identity and EU legitimacy are likely to be ineffective.

Concerned about the EU's apparent lack of cultural legitimacy, EU institutions have increasingly engaged in the transnational politics of history to enhance European identity and foster EU legitimacy. The House of European History museum project in Brussels marks a high point in the European Parliament's history politics. Based on document analysis and interviews, an analysis of the project's origins and evolution highlights the narrow limits of cultural engineering from above, by EU institutions, however. The constraining dissensus in EU politics has forced the European Parliament to rely entirely on the curators and professional historians to legitimize its museum as one that conforms to prevailing curatorial and historical standards. As a result, the first permanent exhibition differs markedly from the original plan. Its narrative has become East Europeanized and the history of European integration proper has been marginalized.