The construction of the European Union has been one of the most exciting and controversial political experiments of the post-WWII world. This course aims to introduce students from a variety of humanistic and social scientific backgrounds to the study of European integration and trans-national identity formation, viewed as contested and contingent historical processes. We will examine the visions that informed the institutional work of Europe’s “founding fathers,” but we will also focus on the often-contentious debates which, almost from the beginning, surrounded the practices and meanings of political and economic governance, citizenship, and cultural identity. Thus, we will set Brexit and the rise of populism in their historical contexts.

Topics will include not only a historical overview of the institutional innovations that have led from post-WWII reconstruction to the adoption of a single currency (the Euro) in 2002 and the current financial crisis, but also a discussion of how Europeans have encouraged and resisted integrative processes at the levels of technological change, popular culture, and social movements. Particular attention will also be devoted to the evolving relationships between western Europe and the rest of the world, especially eastern Europe, the US, and the post-colonial countries.