Sherill Brown Wells. Pioneers of European Integration and Peace, 1945-1963: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: St. Martin's Press, 2007. 178 pp. $39.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-312-08616-9.

Reviewed by Carine Germond (Université Robert Schuman, Strasbourg III)
Published on H-German (November, 2007)

The Legacy of Europe's Architects

Europe began as a vision that gained momentum after the bloodshed of the Second World War and was gradually crystallized into a project in the subsequent decades. The vision of a new, peaceful Europe that would transcend age-old rivalries and nationalism at the origins of so many fratricidal conflicts on the Continent emerged from the ruins of a Europe degraded to a subject of the two superpowers' ideological struggle. A handful of leading personalities, many of whom had been involved in resistance movements against totalitarian and fascist regimes, became inseparably associated with the implementation of the European project. It is these contributions to European unity that Sherill Brown Wells presents in this concise, yet dense, book.

Wells's book is structured into two main parts, both of which are chronologically organized. The first part consists of a short, knowledgeable introduction that describes the main developments of European integration from 1945 to 1963 and concludes with a brief historical survey that outlines significant events up to the present. The introduction draws upon recent scholarship and offers an accessible, descriptive, and analytical summary of Europe's progress toward unity. This section will be helpful for students because it provides the background knowledge to better understand the later documents in the second part of the book.

The second section of the book, the documents, are organized in four chronological subsections: the war's aftermath and the various plans developed in the context of the emerging Cold War and reconstruction (1945-50), Franco-German rapprochement (1950-54), the creation of the European Economic Community (1955-57) and a final part focusing on Charles de Gaulle (1962-63). The documents consist of one- to three-page extracts of memoirs, letters, speeches, official (diplomatic) correspondence, and memoranda. Excerpts of three declarations (the Schuman declaration, the Messina declaration, and the "common declaration" of the Franco-German treaty) enrich the documents collection. A succinct, explanatory note that contextualizes the passage precedes each document. These notes introduce the author and the origin of the document as well as outline key ideas. The selected documents shed light on "the role, thinking and motives of the most influential pioneers of European integration" (p. vi) who shaped Europe's early integration history.

Especially noteworthy is the author's ability to reach beyond the usual Eurocentric viewpoint and, among those "pioneers of peace and European integration," to highlight the contributions of North American officials. She quotes traditional historical figures of European construction such as Jean Monnet, Altiero Spinelli, Paul-Henri Spaak, Alcide de Gasperi, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein, and Winston Churchill. She also include less conventional personalities such as Robert Aaron, Robert Marjolin, Johan Willelm Beyen (albeit not Luxemburg's foreign minister Joseph Bech--though his name appears in the glossary of key people), Ernest Bevin, Harold Macmillan, Harry Truman, Georges C. Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Dwight Eisenhower, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The volume also features two glossaries (one of acronyms and terms and another one of key people), a chronology, and a selected bibliography, which provide useful tools for students in need of a quick reference. The glossary of acronyms and terms expounds the various terms used in the introduction and the documents. In many cases, however, it lacks precision. For instance, while the term "Common Market" is, by metonymy, often used in the scholarly literature for the European Economic Community, the group of countries integrating their economies remains undefined. The definition of "sectoral supranational community" demonstrates a similar problem. In the entry on the social market economy, neither its West German origin nor Ludwig Erhard--the creator of the social market economic model, who appears in the glossary of key people but only in his capacity of economics minister--is named. Also, the Social Democratic Party is simply defined as "a political party in West Germany" with no indication of its political affiliation. More troubling is the fact that some entries of the glossary reveal obvious similarities with Wikipedia data. Though a book review is hardly the place to discuss the reliability of Wikipedia as a source of academic knowledge, this may explain some of the entries' flaws but appears somewhat surprising in an otherwise excellent book. A knowledgeable reader may also miss basic terms such as "the United States of Europe," "Integration," or "Kennedy's Grand Design," all of which are cited in either the introduction or the documents.

The glossary of key people lists the personalities evoked in both the introduction and the documents along with a biographical note--mostly recalling their most influential political position. It provides a compact overview of the persons who have marked and shaped European construction from the interwar period to the present. The brief chronology records the most significant events and helps students recast the documents in their historical context by allowing them to quickly find their bearings in European historical developments. The questions for consideration will be especially helpful for both student and teacher in creating a classroom dialogue. The selected bibliography that ends the volume offers, as its name indicates, a selection of the leading scholarship, mainly in English and French, and gives valuable suggestions for complementary readings. For today's cyber-age students, whose first reflex is to "google" rather than to go through library shelves, the author also provides a useful and up-to-date list of online sources related to the history of European integration--from the European Union's official website to more historically oriented sites such as the European Navigator and the Archives of European Integration at Pittsburgh University.

To many, reviewing twenty years of European integration through the achievements of its most active supporters in such a concise way may appear an impossible undertaking. Wells successfully meets the challenge, however, and her book will be of great interest to students and experts. Doing so, she illustrates the invaluable legacy of the principal architects of European unity who made war on the European continent the exception and cooperation the rule.

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Citation: Carine Germond. Review of Wells, Sherill Brown, Pioneers of European Integration and Peace, 1945-1963: A Brief History with Documents. H-German, H-Net Reviews. November, 2007.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13887

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