the european union

Running Head : BOOK SUMMARIES

Book Summaries

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The Idea of Europe : From Antiquity to the European Union . Ed by Anthony Pagden . Washington , D .C : Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Cambridge University Press , 2002 :1-32

The idea of a `collective ' Europe can be traced to the common history and cultural domains of European countries in the past . European countries in the past shared the same faith , political philosophy , and appreciation of the arts . Religion became the basis of the prototype `collective ' Europe , although this would end with

the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation . It was political philosophy that helped forged a relatively weak European unity . The `divine doctrine of kings ' became the basis of most European states . With the coming of the Enlightenment Era , a new philosophy engulfed the political arena . Liberalism emerged as the foremost governing principle of most governments . However , the price for liberalism was costly . The old system was destroyed through a bloody revolution . Countries disintegrated as groups competed for control of the state . Here , the idea of nation-state had been intensified by nationalism . Nationalism and liberalism were ideas that tended to emphasize the supremacy of the state in absolute terms

With the end of the Second World War , the search for transnational identity intensified . The weakness of the nation-state had been exposed during the war . A certain type of unity must be achieved in to prevent another `political disaster ' However , such unity must be first achieved in the economic arena , for the political domain...