The Struggle for Europe
The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present
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- 7,49 €
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- 7,49 €
Descripción editorial
From the ashes of World War II to the conflict over Iraq, William Hitchcock examines the miraculous transformation of Europe from a deeply fractured land to a continent striving for stability, tolerance, democracy, and prosperity. Exploring the role of Cold War politics in Europe’s peace settlement and the half century that followed, Hitchcock reveals how leaders such as Charles de Gaulle, Willy Brandt, and Margaret Thatcher balanced their nations’ interests against the demands of the reigning superpowers, leading to great strides in economic and political unity. He re-creates Europeans’ struggles with their troubling legacy of racial, ethnic, and national antagonism, and shows that while divisions persist, Europe stands on the threshold of changes that may profoundly shape the future of world affairs.
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Hitchcock, a professor at Wellesley College, is an unabashed admirer of Europe, which he views as the global center of peace, democracy and prosperity. Yet anyone who surveyed the continent in the decades before 1950 would have remarked on precisely the opposite features: a Europe torn apart by two massive wars and economic depression, and notable for the prevalence of dictatorships. Hitchcock's problem, then, is how to explain Europe's phoenix-like rise, the radical break in its history around the mid-century mark. At the outset, he provides four answers that guide his historical survey. In the face of the Communist threat, Western Europe joined with the United States and benefited from U.S. military and economic support. Europe had a "good Cold War," he writes. Moreover, because WWII had been so destructive, when Europeans rebuilt, they were able to employ the most modern technologies and free markets. Finally, Europeans were committed to democracy and chose the path of peaceful reform rather than violent revolution. The reasoning here is circular: Europe is democratic because its people have chosen democracy. But while the logic may be faulty, Hitchcock (France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy) does provide a clear exposition of postwar developments the rise of the welfare state; the slow, steady march toward the European Union; Cold War conflicts over Poland, Berlin and so on. Readers hungering for sustained discussion of the dramatic social and cultural transformations of the postwar period will not be satiated; others might find this sober and comprehensive political history of Europe's glory years instructive.
