David Edgerton

Over to EU

Continental Drift: Britain and Europe from the End of Empire to the Rise of Euroscepticism

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Cambridge University Press 590pp £24.99 order from our bookshop

Britain's Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation

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Allen Lane 302pp £20 order from our bookshop

Why has much of the United Kingdom been so Eurosceptic? One common answer, from Eurosceptics and pro-Europeans alike, is that the UK has been and remains very different from what is called continental Europe. The differentiating feature, it is typically suggested, is the ‘empire’, supplemented in the more recent past by the ‘special relationship’ with the United States. This thesis has been reinforced by a historiography, particularly prominent in the USA, that has sought to put the empire back into British history.

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