With the acceleration of European integration, the traditional defence-based nation-states are under threat. The steady transfer of power in mainland Europe to new, powerful regional authorities has started to build up new forms of intra-European integration.

The author explores both the good and bad aspects of the present European situation, and shows how setting these in the context of cultural, economic and political history dramatically alters the way in which we have traditionally surveyed the European past. Christopher Harvie's challenging study argues that we are only beginning to realise the shift in consciousness, as well as in politics and administration, that an integrated Europe will involve