A Certain Idea of Europe (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)

"A Certain Idea of Europe traces the progressive victory of this project in France, where the battle over European institutions erupted most divisively. Drawing on archival materials and extensive interviews with French policy-makers, the author carefully traces a fifty-year conflict between radically different European plans. Only through aggressive leadership did the advocates of a supranational "community" Europe succeed at building the EU and binding their opponents within it." "Parsons puts the causal impact of ideas, and their binding effects through institutions, at the center of his book. In so doing he presents a strong logic of social construction - a sharp departure from other accounts of EU history that downplay the role of ideas and ideology."--BOOK JACKET.