Book contents
- The Idea of Europe
- The Idea of Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Myths of Europa: From Classical Antiquity to the Enlightenment
- Chapter 2 A Great Republic of Cultivated Minds: 1712–1815
- Chapter 3 Nationalism and Universalism: 1815–1848
- Chapter 4 The Russia Question
- Chapter 5 Homo Europaeus: 1848–1918
- Chapter 6 The European Spirit: 1918–1933
- Chapter 7 A New European Order: 1933–1945
- Chapter 8 Unity in Diversity: 1945–1989
- Chapter 9 Other Europes
- Chapter 10 Europe against Itself: 1989 to the Present Day
- Conclusion Good Europeans?
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 8 - Unity in Diversity: 1945–1989
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2021
- The Idea of Europe
- The Idea of Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Myths of Europa: From Classical Antiquity to the Enlightenment
- Chapter 2 A Great Republic of Cultivated Minds: 1712–1815
- Chapter 3 Nationalism and Universalism: 1815–1848
- Chapter 4 The Russia Question
- Chapter 5 Homo Europaeus: 1848–1918
- Chapter 6 The European Spirit: 1918–1933
- Chapter 7 A New European Order: 1933–1945
- Chapter 8 Unity in Diversity: 1945–1989
- Chapter 9 Other Europes
- Chapter 10 Europe against Itself: 1989 to the Present Day
- Conclusion Good Europeans?
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the Second World War years, the long-dreamed-of idea of a politically united Europe finally began to be realized, if only in Western Europe. At the heart of this project for a united Europe was the principle of “unity in diversity,” with the diversity lying in the distinct national cultures across Europe. Chapter 8 focuses first on the various reflections on the idea of a “European spirit” discussed at major international conference in Geneva in 1947, before considering the ways in which the notion of “unity in diversity” served to provide an ideological underpinning for this new Europe. Among the many writers and thinkers discussed in this chapter are T. S. Eliot, Denis de Rougemont, Georg Lukács, Stephen Spender, Georges Bernanos, and Karl Jaspers. The chapter highlights just how challenging it is to break with Eurocentric, Euro-supremacist, and Euro-universalist agendas even when the emphasis is placed on diversity. The case of Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Fascists in the interwar years, is particularly instructive. As this chapter shows, he was among the most ardent advocates of a united Europe, his arguments having profound implications for any progressive idea of Europe.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Idea of EuropeA Critical History, pp. 188 - 219Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021