Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration by Cris Shore, Chris Shore ISBN: 0-415-18015-5 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Superb account of EU state-building
Comment: Cris Shore has written a quite outstanding book on the European Union, showing how its leaders aim to create a single European state.
The EU's founders warned us that they sought to destroy the sovereignty and independence of its member states. Jean Monnet wrote, "Everyday realities will make it possible to form the political union which is the goal of our Community and to establish the United States of Europe." Konrad Adenauer said that the original proposal for pooling French and German steel production was "first and foremost political, not economic. This plan was to be the beginning of a federal structure of Europe."
Later, Chancellor Kohl said, "In Maastricht we laid the foundation stone for the completion of the European Union. The European Union Treaty introduces a new and decisive stage in the process of European Union which within a few years will lead to the creation of what the founding fathers of modern Europe dreamed after the last war: the United States of Europe."
In practice, the EU has already gone far towards creating a new state, although it has signally failed to create one that is honest and democratic. As Shore writes, "To most critical observers it seems quite evident that the European Community has acquired most of the characteristics of a state, however much some might wish to deny this." And, "with its single currency, its Central Bank and treaty control over money supply and borrowing, the EU takes on the powers of a sovereign state, albeit a transnational state without a democratic government." As Pascal Lamy, Delors' chef de cabinet, admitted, "The people weren't ready to agree to integration, so you had to get on without telling them too much about what was happening."
The Committee of Independent Experts reported in 1999 that fraud, cronyism, mismanagement and cover-ups were rife in the European Commission, summarising, "It is becoming difficult to find anyone who has even the slightest sense of responsibility." Shore concludes that the Report "exposed ... the extraordinary degree to which patronage, fraud and corruption ... had become established, even institutionalised, within the Commission."
Rating: 5
Summary: Important contribution
Comment: Chris Shore's "Building Europe" is an innovative study of the European Union, and should be taken seriously. Shore is one of the first to jump in the post-EMU debate: now that Europe has almost completed Economic Union, what are the expectations, challenges, and impossibilities with regard to further integration? Shore offers a systematic discussion of the role of 'culture' in the European Union. How has a European identity been created, or not!, among both citizens and civil servants in Brussels? Shore turns out to be quite critical in the end. Europeanism is not strongly rooted among the peoples of Europe. And the elites in Brussels are far from what a perfect European bureaucrat must be like. He concludes that the goal of European federalism, which so strongly depends on some form of common European identity, may be one bridge too far. To conclude, Shore's informed and refreshing perspective on the actual challenges to European integration forms an important contribution to the debate. Anyone who wants to think of tomorrow's Europe may probably want to read "Building Europe", no matter if you agree or disagree with Shore's final conclusions.
 |
Title: Reversible Destiny : Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo by Peter T. Schneider, Jane C. Schneider ISBN: 0520236092 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Bridging Divides: The Channel Tunnel and English Legal Identity in the New Europe by Eve Darian-Smith ISBN: 0520216113 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees by Peter Sahlins ISBN: 0520074157 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: April, 1991 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: Language and Symbolic Power by Pierre Bourdieu, John B. Thompson ISBN: 0674510410 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
 |
Title: Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present) by Talal Asad ISBN: 0804747687 Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
