Political History of Western
Europe Since 1945
5th edition
By Derek Urwin
April 1997
Pearson Education / Longman
ISBN: 0582253748
376 Pages, Illustrated
$57.50 Paper original
Taking a thematic approach, Derek Urwin addresses the major political and economic developments in western Europe since World War II, right up to the present day. The book covers issues and developments in national politics, and the movement towards greater unity in Western Europe and the role of Europe in global politics and in the international economy.
The text has been revised throughout and updated to take account of the political consequences of the ending of the Cold War and the troubled progress of European integration since Maastricht. The Fifth Edition has lost nothing of its predecessor's clarity and accessibility and in its updated form will win the book a host of new admirers.
Contents
1. List of Maps
2. Preface and Acknowledgements
3. List of Abbreviations
4. Parameters and Perspectives
5. The Resistance in the Postwar World
6. Problems of Reconstruction
7. The Revival of Political Competition
8. Cold War and Atlantic Alliance
9. The Rebirth of Germany
10. Integration: the Postwar Beginning
11. Cold War to Thaw
12. Road to Rome
13. The Death of Colonialism
14. The Golden Economic Summer
15. Political Stability and Consensus
16. A Seesaw of Detente and Tension
17. What Kind of Europe?
18. Alienation and Protest
19. From Detente to New Cold War
20. Economic Dilemmas and Problems
21 The Extension of Democracy in Southern Europe
22. The Political Mosaic: a Politics of Uncertainty?
23. The Enlarged Community
24. The Improbable Decade
25. Altered States
26. Requiescat in Pace: Cold War Western Europe
27. Bibliography
28. Maps
29. Index
Features
• The standard student introduction to the subject.
• Covers political consequences of the ending of the Cold War and European
integration since Maastricht.
• Complex issues and terminology are explained clearly and accessibly.
Review
'Digests of postwar history abound, but I have yet to come across one better-written
or more inclusive'
Times Educational Supplement