This newly revised and updated second edition is the classic economic and political account of the origins of the European Community. On one level it is an original analysis of the forces which brought the EC together, on another it is an explanation based on historical analysis of the future relationship between nation-state and the European Union. Combining political with economic analysis, and based on extensive primary research in several countries, this book offers a challenging interpretation of the history of the western European state and European integration.

Alan S. Milward is Professor of Contemporary History at the European University Institute, Florence and official historian and Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics.

List of tables, Preface to the first edition, Preface to the second edition, List of abbreviations, Key to archival references, 1. History and theory, 2. The post-war nation-state, 3. Coal and the Belgian nation, 4. Foreign trade, economic and social advance, and the origins of the European Economic Community, 5. The Europeanization of agricultural protection, 6. The lives and teachings of the European saints, 7. Britain and western Europe, Envoi, Bibliography, Index