Economics and Politics of European Integration

The Economics and Politics of European Integration offers a comprehensive history of European integration, from the conceptualization of a United States of Europe, to the present day. The special role of the United States in this process of integration, and the expansion and evolution of the European Union, is critically analyzed. The book also thoroughly discusses the current view of the EU and the complex crises emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.While the book focuses primarily on Europe, the role of other countries is also examined. The rise of hostile enemies from Turkey, Russia, the US and China is explored, and the history and outcome of Brexit also receives unique focus. Maps are used throughout to clearly depict the enlargement process. This illuminating text will be valuable reading for students and researchers across international economics, economic history, political economy and European studies.

In this compelling new book Ivan Berend places different issues currently facing the European Union - further enlargement, migration, anti-EU populism, economic crisis, Covid-19 - in the context of a sweeping history of the idea and reality of European integration since World War II.Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl, Associate Professor of History, University of LausanneIvan Berend's magisterial account of the "short" history of European integration makes landfall at just the right moment. As the EU faces a "perfect storm"—probably the most dire succession of crises since its founding— Berend's economic and political history of integration provides a compelling account of the EU’s evolution from a trade community to a political union. This book is a true tour de force, and can rightly be considered the last word on the Cold War origins of the EU. Bojan Bugaric, Professor of Law, University of Sheffield

Ivan T. Berend has been Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA since 1990. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, and studied at the Budapest University of Economics and Lorand Eötvös University. He worked as an assistant professor at the University of Economics (1953), as an associate and full professor (1963) and as Distinguished Professor of History at University of California History Department (1960–1985) before taking up his current post.