The Netherlands and European Integration, 1950 to Present
Mathieu Segers
- Title
- A More Perfect Union
- Subtitle
- Federal Union in Political Theory and Practice, 1500-1951
- Author
- Joshua Livestro
- Price
- € 198,00 excl. VAT
- ISBN
- 9789048563777
- Format
- Hardback
- Number of pages
- 618
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 30 - 05 - 2024
- Dimensions
- 15.6 x 23.4 cm
- Discipline
- History, Art History, and Archaeology
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Machiavellian Moment: on Modes of Expansion
Chapter 2 A Taxonomy of Unions
Chapter 3 The European Republic
Chapter 4 The American moment
Chapter 5 The Necessity of Compromise
Chapter 6 The European Congress as Peace Pact
Chapter 7 Germany, from Staatenbund to Bundesstaat
Chapter 8 The Peace Movement’s Federal Utopianism
Chapter 9 Peace through Union
Chapter 10 Europe’s Anti-Federalist Moment
Chapter 11 The Hour for Union
Chapter 12 Europe’s Federalist Moment
Conclusion
Epilogue: The United States of Europe
Acknowledgments
Index
Chapter 1 The Machiavellian Moment: on Modes of Expansion
Chapter 2 A Taxonomy of Unions
Chapter 3 The European Republic
Chapter 4 The American moment
Chapter 5 The Necessity of Compromise
Chapter 6 The European Congress as Peace Pact
Chapter 7 Germany, from Staatenbund to Bundesstaat
Chapter 8 The Peace Movement’s Federal Utopianism
Chapter 9 Peace through Union
Chapter 10 Europe’s Anti-Federalist Moment
Chapter 11 The Hour for Union
Chapter 12 Europe’s Federalist Moment
Conclusion
Epilogue: The United States of Europe
Acknowledgments
Index
Reviews and Features
‘A More Perfect Union’ is an intellectual tour de force on a truly European scale. Livestro’s book brims with incisive insights into the long story of ‘federal union’ in Europe and the Atlantic. It sparkles as a study of Europe’s longue durée. As befits a fine and lucid work of historical synthesis, it urges the reader to reflect, not just on the great and disastrous ‘Machiavellian Moments’ of European pasts but also on our own opportunities to shape Europe’s futures as a ‘federal union’.
Martin van Gelderen, professor in European intellectual history, University of Göttingen
Joshua Livestro’s book, ‘A More Perfect Union’, is a beautiful, wholly original study of five hundred years of European history which shows the strong, and ever closer, bond between the peoples of Europe. Eloquently and incisively, Livestro shows how thinkers, dreamers and leaders (“from Machiavelli to Monnet”) at every turn reached for the concept of federal union in their search for a continental order that could secure peace, freedom and equality. The lessons from their successes - and no less importantly: their failures - can inspire us today in our own quest for a more perfect union.
Professor Catherine de Vries, holder of the Generali Endowed Chair in European Policies and Dean of International Affairs at Bocconi University, Milan
Martin van Gelderen, professor in European intellectual history, University of Göttingen
Joshua Livestro’s book, ‘A More Perfect Union’, is a beautiful, wholly original study of five hundred years of European history which shows the strong, and ever closer, bond between the peoples of Europe. Eloquently and incisively, Livestro shows how thinkers, dreamers and leaders (“from Machiavelli to Monnet”) at every turn reached for the concept of federal union in their search for a continental order that could secure peace, freedom and equality. The lessons from their successes - and no less importantly: their failures - can inspire us today in our own quest for a more perfect union.
Professor Catherine de Vries, holder of the Generali Endowed Chair in European Policies and Dean of International Affairs at Bocconi University, Milan
Joshua Livestro
A More Perfect Union
Federal Union in Political Theory and Practice, 1500-1951
This book tells the history of the ‘federal union’, a concept that may be traced from the early Renaissance to the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) – the predecessor of today’s European Union. It is a story of three federal canons: of greater and lesser thinkers, of utopian peace plans, and of practical experiences with federal unions. Together they shaped the concepts that created the ECSC.
This book unlocks the past of the EU – a union that always thought it didn’t have a past, but was, on the contrary, ‘sui generis’, without examples or predecessors. Although there was nothing inevitable about the founding of the EU, A More Perfect Union shows that it was plausible and perhaps even predictable that such a union would be formed at some point – and that the aftermath of the Second World War was exactly the kind of founding moment about which federal theorists in previous centuries had speculated.
This book unlocks the past of the EU – a union that always thought it didn’t have a past, but was, on the contrary, ‘sui generis’, without examples or predecessors. Although there was nothing inevitable about the founding of the EU, A More Perfect Union shows that it was plausible and perhaps even predictable that such a union would be formed at some point – and that the aftermath of the Second World War was exactly the kind of founding moment about which federal theorists in previous centuries had speculated.
Author
Joshua Livestro
Joshua Livestro worked as political adviser in London, Brussels, and The Hague before becoming a columnist and essayist. He published in the Wall Street Journal, Politico, and NRC Handelsblad. Previous book: De Adem van Grootheid, a history of 1950s Holland (Prometheus, Amsterdam).
