On the United States of Europe

This is one of those books, being less than fifteen years old, that shows its age. Published just two years after the Euro was introduced, Reid is outright optimistic about the European Union. Not only had it unified much of Europe in a transnational structure and common market, but it kept peace, forged a new generation of “European” citizens (“Generation E” in his words), and is capable of standing up to the United States. All of these things are true, and remain true—Generation E is very real, especially in Western Europe.

However, he spends little time acknowledging Euroskeptics—at the time this book was published, there were many who rejected the formation of the European Union (the Maastricht Treaty was only narrowly accepted by French voters, for example). Further, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 did much to discredit the European Union (whether this is justified or not is another question). Today, nationalism is also on the rise. Although younger voters in Western Europe still generally accept their European identity, the acceptance of Europe among older citizens and Eastern Europeans is far less sound.

I felt inspired by Reid’s detailed discussion of the European Union, but a work on this subject written today (even those that see the EU positively) would likely come at it from a very different angle—justifiably so, the European Union is an important (perhaps even great) institution, but there is also much to criticize.