Delusions of Grandeur: New Perspectives on the History of the European Community.

MARK GILBERT

All four of these books are interesting additions to the corpus of historical research into European integration. Parr and Poggiolini's books are precise, document-based accounts of the trials and tribulations surrounding Britain's accession to the European Economic Community (EEC); Ludlow's book, which is based on an imposing quantity of archive research in six countries, is the most important work in English to date on the evolution of the European Community (EC) in the period that elapsed between Charles de Gaulle's veto of British entry and the Hague summit of December 1969, when the member states? leaders ?brought to an end a seven year struggle over its purpose, mode of operation and membership? (p. 198). Gillingham's book reads like a 300-page op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, and is largely concerned with current events rather than history, but that does not mean that it has nothing of relevance for historians, as I hope to show at the end of this review.

EUROPE; UNITED Kingdom; EUROPEAN Economic Community; EUROPEAN Community; GAULLE, Charles de, 1890-1970; RIGHT of exclusion; EUROPEAN history, 1945-

Contemporary European History, 2007, Vol 16, Issue 4, p545

0960-7773

Academic Journal

10.1017/S0960777307004171