Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my very favorite books., October 3, 2000
As one reads this book one can feel layer upon layer being peeled away from the hype built up around the emergence of the European Union as a political entity. This extremely well-written book not only opened my eyes to the tremendous falsehoods perpetrated by advocates of the new European superstate, it also made me painfully aware of the caliber of most of the top European political leaders. What sort of people advocate the EU? What are the motives behind their enthusiasm? The book answers all these questions and more. A chapter on the evolution of central banks gives an invaluable added dimension to the already rich text, and the expose of the highly unsavory elitism that pervades much -- if not most -- of the political class in Europe, both within and outside the membership of the EU. This is a brilliant work that draws on parallels from the past to reveal the true historical ancestry of the European Union. That ancestry is not pretty, but it is absolutely vital for anyone interested in contemporary international politics, including (perhaps especially) Americans, to know about.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb analysis of Europe's malaise, December 23, 2001
What intrigued me most about Laughland's book from the get go was the first chapter, Fascists and Federalists, which I found on the web. As a student of WWII it was only last year that I became aware of the sheer numbers of foreign volunteers for the Waffen SS and the extent of active collaboration with the National Socialist program from a broad spectrum of Europeans, not just Germans. Aside from documenting the efforts of the Nazis to cloak their grasp for world domination in the guise of defending 'European' civilization, Laughland shows that there was a sincere body of thought in France and Germany in the interwar years that rejected both old style nationalism and Bolshevik Russia, which unfortunately the Fascists were able to seize upon. However, the next time you hear some ignorant person describe an advocate of limited government and nationalism as 'a fascist' tell them about the first chapter of this book. The jackboot is on the other foot, so to speak.
More importantly than these dubious historical links is the lack of a democratic philosophy extending beyond just 'who gets what' in the minds of most European elites. I would caution the reader however, that Laughland does not talk much about the individuals on the Continent who are working to create a democratic and accountable United States of Europe - like Otto von Hapsburg. Laughland simply doesn't think it can be done. The last few chapters include a spirited defense of neoclassical liberalism. Laughland argues that borders are critical jurisdictions but not boundaries to free trade; the gold standard would lead to sounder money (all snickering from wonks and Fed worshippers aside); and law is a system based on objective moral values and not dirigiste bureaucratic management.
I have seen no better exposition of the Euroskeptic position.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Laughland explores the hidden roots of Europeanism, May 21, 2006
John Laughland examines the dark underbelly of European unity. He turns over the rocks and shows how many of the institutional precursors, indeed many of the bureaucratic architects, of 'the New Europe' had their genesis in the infrastructure of Nazi occupation. He shows how German's current pro-European position has it's precursoes in the strategy Bismark pursued for decades in the quest for a Prussian dominated 'United Germany'.
To top it off Laughland explores how the liberal and representative institutions that characterise "western democracies" are themselves organic and interactive parts of their overall nation. Attempts to transfer or mimic their functions at a super-national level essentially take them out of their context, the social contracts, that sustained them aand gave them meaning.
The European project, whatever benefits it no doubt delivers, frankly represents the gravest threat to the traditional liberties of european peoples since the fall of communism. The technocrats of course, like all apparatchiks, prefer to extend their power in the dark. Laughland's book is a necessary corrective to the mass of pro-european writings that fail to look under the rocks.
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