Reading recommendations for anyone interested in Europe and the consequences of Brexit. Some of these books paint a positive picture of the EU, some don’t. We need to know the brexiteer arguments in order to counter them, so both perspectives are worth a look. The picture of post-Brexit Britain that emerges is complex, and mostly rather depressing.
Ash, Timothy Garton (2024). ‘Homelands’. Vintage
A personal history of the EU from before the fall of the Berlin wall, until last year, from one of Britain’s leading experts on Europe. A penetrating and painful analysis of Brexit, and a bracing look toward the future.
Bickerton, Chris (2016) ‘The European Union: a citizen’s guide’. Pelican
One of the most considered and rational accounts of the negatives of the EU. Bickerton finds plenty wrong, and ends up saying that Europe must recast itself around internationalism, not federalism. A challenging read, providing a good practise-run for arguments with brexiteers.
Carter, Mike (2019) ‘ All Together Now?’ Guardian Faber
Shortly before the 2016 referendum Mike Carter travels the same route from Liverpool to London that his father took on a march for jobs in 1982. He stops frequently- mostly in midlands towns and cities- and talks to people. Those conversations explain much about the referendum result. An unhappy country.
Goodhart, David. (2017) ‘The Road to Somewhere’. Penguin
An interesting analysis of the division- exposed by the Brexit vote- between people who are strongly identified with their national identity and locality, and people who see themselves belonging to a wider world. The latter are Theresa May’s ‘people who belong anywhere belong nowhere’. I’m never quite sure where Goodhart himself is coming from on these issues, but he offers an interesting analysis.
Kuper. Simon. (2022) ‘Chums’. Profile
This focuses on a coterie of posh boys who connected at Oxford University and later went on to play key roles in bringing Brexit about. Boris Johnson, obviously. But others too, whom we might not have heard of. Brexiteers whinge about ‘the elite’. Well here is their elite.
Levi, Primo (2013) ‘The Drowned and the Saved’ Abacus
‘The Drowned and the Saved is the last book (1986) by Jewish-Italian writer Primo Levi, perhaps best know for “Ecce Homo” (If this is a man). In it, he tries to understand again the concentration camps and the actions of different people in the camp, including inmates, and reviews the chances of it happening again. He warns that the contemporaneous events in Cambodia show the evils of Nazi Germany already returning, and that they can return in Europe once enough living connection with the past is gone.
The chapter on “useless violence” is telling, as is the one on “the grey zone”, including “privileged prisoners”.
The question I have is, “are we there yet?”.
Notably, towards the end, he says “Few countries can be immune to a future tide of violence generated by intolerance, lust for power, economic difficulties, religious or political fanaticism, and racialist attritions.” He adds “distrust the prophets”, for whom we can no doubt read the names of Farage, Orban, Trump, Putin and many others. ‘ (Simon Ferrigno)
See https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6176.The_Drowned_and_the_Saved
Meek, James.(2019) “Dreams of Leaving and Remaining’. Verso
Meek visits a number of places in England (and one in Poland), seeking to understand the social and economic dynamics that led people toward Brexit (and, in the case of Poland, to vote for the Law and Justice Party). Its both an analysis and a meditation, complex and poignant.
O’Toole, Fintan (2019). ‘Heroic Failure’. Head Zeus
A sardonic look at the politics and mass-psychology of Brexit, and at some of the leading figures of the referendum campaign; also the post-2016 Brexit regime of Johnson and his associates. O’Toole understands England well, but as an Irishman he still has something of the outsider’s perspective, which enriches his account.
Sobelewska, Maria and Ford, Robert. (2020) ‘Brexitland’ Cambridge University Press
A careful and well-supported account of cultural and political change in the UK in the post WWII period, focusing in on the lead-up to the Brexit referendum. Good evidence and interesting predictions on party loyalties and voter behaviour.
Stephens, P (2022) ‘Britain Alone: the path from Suez to Brexit.’ Faber & Faber
‘This is a fantastic analysis of the long mess that has been British (English) post war foreign policy, with the stupidity of Brexit as its crowning glory. Stephens wrote this book during the Biden presidency; his warnings of isolation are all the more pertinent with Trump 2 looming over us. Well worth a read.’ (Phil Harris).
Usherwood, Simon and Pinder, John. (2018) ‘The European Union: a short introduction’. Oxford University Press
A concise overview of the EU, its development, its goals and the challenges it faces. It’s a good counterbalance to Bickerton’s book (above), being less negative; though problems are not minimized
Varoufakis, Yanis.(2017) ‘And the Weak Suffer What They Must’ Vintage
Varoufakis was Greece’s finance minister during the worst of the Euro crisis. He offers a penetrating and highly informative financial and economic history of Europe from WWII, homing in on Greece’s treatment by the rest of the EU 2008-11.
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