The End of the West: The Once and Future Europe (Public Square)

Princeton University Press, 2012. Near Fine. A tight clean softcover, no markings throughout: Has Europe's extraordinary postwar recovery limped to an end? It would seem so. The United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Italy, and former Soviet Bloc cou ntries have experienced ethnic or religious disturbances, sometimes violent . Greece, Ireland, and Spain are menaced by financial crises. And the euro is in trouble. In The End of the West, David Marquand, a former member of t he British Parliament, argues that Europe's problems stem from outdated per ceptions of global power, and calls for a drastic change in European govern ance to halt the continent's slide into irrelevance. Taking a searching loo k at the continent's governing institutions, history, and current challenge s, Marquand offers a disturbing diagnosis of Europe's ills to point the way toward a better future. Exploring the baffling contrast between postwar success and current failure s, Marquand examines the rebirth of ethnic communities from Catalonia to Fl anders, the rise of xenophobic populism, the democratic deficit that stymie s EU governance, and the thorny questions of where Europe's borders end and what it means to be European. Marquand contends that as China, India, and other nations rise, Europe must abandon ancient notions of an enlightened W est and a backward East. He calls for Europe's leaders and citizens to conf ront the painful issues of ethnicity, integration, and economic cohesion, a nd to build a democratic and federal structure. A wake-up call to those who cling to ideas of a triumphalist Europe, The End of the West shows that the continent must draw on all its reserves of intellectual and political.