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Overview
This book is about how every age invented the idea of Europe in the mirror of its own identity: Europe is as much an idea as it is a reality, but it is also a contested idea and it was in adversity that European identity was constructed as a dichotomy of Self and Other. The book analyses the origins and development of the idea of Europe as a social construction from the earliest times to the present. Its challenging thesis is that the European idea has lent itself to a politics of division and exclusion, which has been disguised by superficial notions of unity.
Synopsis
This book is about how every age invented the idea of Europe in the mirror of its own identity: Europe is as much an idea as it is a reality, but it is also a contested idea and it was in adversity that European identity was constructed as a dichotomy of Self and Other. The book analyses the origins and development of the idea of Europe as a social construction from the earliest times to the present. Its challenging thesis is that the European idea has lent itself to a politics of division and exclusion, which has been disguised by superficial notions of unity.
Booknews
If there were no Europe, would it be absolutely necessary to invent it, especially over and over? Delanty (cultural history, U. College-Cork, Ireland and U. of Hanover) shows that people have been doing exactly that since the decline of classical Greek civilization, influenced by ideas about medieval Christianity, the Enlightenment, and 19th-century nationalism. He argues that the notion of European unity has always been but a thin cover for the politics of division and exclusion, and that the idea must be judged by how it treats its minorities rather than some ambivalent measure of unity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)