The History of the Idea of Europe [antikvár]

Introduction to Book 1 The Europe of the 1990s has become a major focus of public discourse. The end of the Cold Wai- and the collapse of the Soviet Union has opened up the possibilities of re-connecting western and eastern Europe; and the quickening of integration processes within the European Community/Union has raised the prospects of economic, monetary and political union. What kind of Europe are we building and why? How does this new Europe relate to the patterns and experiences of European history? Are there distinctive European values? Is there a coherent, recognisable European identity? What do Europe and being European mean? These issues are not new but, since they are now being variously addressed by politicians, journalists and academics -both inside and outside Europe - they have a sharp contemporary relevance. Accordingly, there is a strong inclination to re-examine the history of Europe and to search for a European idea in history. The quest is not an easy one. Borders have fluctuated, institutions have waxed and waned, nations have formed, disappeared, re-formed. There is even a temptation to presume that the purpose of history has been for East and West to come together in an EC-like Greater Europe where self-satisfaction, democracy and progress rule, although, as you will see, such presumptions are not espoused by the authors of Book 1. Investigations into the meaning of Europe, into European values, into European identity inevitably have raised - and continue to pose - a number of conflicting questions. Does the European 'project', as represented by the European Union, ultimately rest on a sufficiency of shared values, culture and history? Does this commonality explain why we have come so far; is it a precondition for the stability of a European community that it is rooted in a cultural unity, in a strong sense of 'European-ness'? Or is the European project destined to come to grief on the rocks of the nation-states? Is the mainspring of Europeanness the very diversity of national and regional cultures and, if so, is not the pursuit of one European identity per se a chimera? Are shared values mainly to be found at the level of political principles - the state under the rule of law, democracy, human rights -and not in political and social practices? Does the making of Europe depend on finding solutions to certain inherited problems - the problem of nationalism for example? Or can the European Union, as the latest manifestation of a European project, be driven by a desire to build a new Europe, the legitimacy of which is geared to the future and not to the past? Such questions point to sharply contrasting notions of what Europe represents but, irrespective of the answers, they rest on the assumption that the idea of Europe is embedded in a mix of three related concepts: • There is something called 'Europe' (some kind of European 'specification'). • Europeans hold a perception of themselves as being European (they have something of a European 'self-identity'). • History reveals schemes for European unity (pohtics for and in die name of 'Europe').