Embattled Europe: A Progressive Alternative

A bracing corrective to predictions of the European Unions decline, by a leading historian of modern Europe

Is the European Union in decline? Recent history, from the debt and migration crises to Brexit, has led many observers to argue that the EUs best days are behind it. Over the past decade, right-wing populists have come to power in Poland, Hungary, and beyondmany of them winning elections using strident anti-EU rhetoric. At the same time, Russia poses a continuing military threat, and the rise of Asia has challenged the EU's economic power. But in Embattled Europe, renowned European historian Konrad Jarausch counters the prevailing pessimistic narrative of European obsolescence with a rousing yet realistic defense of the continentone grounded in a fresh account of its post1989 history and an intimate understanding of its twentieth-century horrors.

An engaging narrative and probing analysis, Embattled Europe tells the story of how the EU emerged as a model of democratic governance and balanced economic growth, adapting to changing times while retaining its value system. The book describes the EUs admirable approach to the environment, social welfare, immigration, and global competitiveness. And it presents underappreciated European success storiesincluding Denmarks transition to a green economy, Swedens restructuring of its welfare state, and Polands economic miracle.

Embattled Europe makes a powerful case that Europewith its peaceful foreign policy, social welfare solidarity, and environmental protectionoffers the best progressive alternative to the military adventurism and rampant inequality of plutocratic capitalism and right-wing authoritarianism.