Integration is the most significant European historical development in the past fifty years, eclipsing in importance even the collapse of the USSR. Yet, until now, no satisfactory explanation is to be found in any single book as to why integration is significant, how it originated, how it has changed Europe, and where it is headed. Professor Gillingham's work corrects the inadequacies of the existing literature by cutting through the genuine confusion that surrounds the activities of the European Union, and by looking at his subject from a truly historical perspective. The late-twentieth century has been an era of great, though insufficiently appreciated, accomplishment that intellectually and morally is still emerging from the shadow of an earlier one of depression, and modern despotism. This is a work, then, that captures the historical distinctiveness of Europe in a way that transcends current party political debate.

Table of Contents:
Part I. A German Solution to Europe's Problems? The Early History of European Communities, 1950–1965: Introduction to part one: a new global setting; 1. The liberal project for an integrated Europe; 2. The rise and decline of monetarism; 3. More or less liberal Europe: the institutional origins of integration; 4. All or nothing? The founding of the EEC and the ending of an era, 1958–1966; Conclusion of part one: Needed: a new integration scenario; Part II. From Embedded Liberalism to Liberalism - A Step Forward: European Integration and Regime Change in the 1970s: Introduction to part two: a new European situation; 5. Realm of theory to sphere of action; 6. Better than muddling through; Conclusion of part two: needed: a new integration theory; Part III. Seeking the New Horizon: European Integration from the Single European Act to the Maastricht Treaty: Introduction to part three: a new realm of possibility; 7. Forces of change, forces of resistance; 8. Thatcherism, and the reform of Britain; 9. The crisis of the welfare state and the challenge of modernization in Europe in the 1980s; 10. Maastricht ho! by air, land, or SEA?; 11. The Delorean agenda; Conclusion of part three: Needed: a new integration direction; Part IV: A False Dawn? Challenge and Promise in Europe of the 1990s: Introduction to part four: a new global framework; 12. Almost a road to nowhere; 13. No open and shut cases: member-states and the European community in the 1990s; 14. Shrinking enlargement: betrayal of a pledge or new opportunity?; 15. The new market economy and Europe's future; Conclusion to part four: Needed: a new European Union?