Book event at Waterstones: 'Britain's Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation' by Brendan Simms

Mon 16 May 2016

Waterstones Cambridge

Book signing and talk at Waterstones Cambridge by Prof. Brendan Simms, the Samuel Johnson nominated author of 'Unfinest Hour', 'Three Victories and a Defeat', and 'Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy'.

Britain's Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation':

Britain has always had a tangled, complex, paradoxical role in Europe's
history. It has invaded and been invaded, changed sides, stood aloof,
acted with both brazen cynicism and the cloudiest idealism. Every
century troops from the British isles have marched across the mainland
in pursuit of a great complex of different goals, foremost among them
the intertwined defence of parliamentary liberty in Britain and the
'Liberties of Europe'. Dynastically Britain has been closely linked to
countries as varied as Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and France. In
this bracing and highly enjoyable book, Brendan Simms describes the
highlights and low-points in the Euro-British encounter, from the Dark
Ages to the present. The critical importance of understanding this
history is shown in the final chapter, which dramatizes the issues
around British relations with the European Union and the how, far from
being a narrowly legalistic or financial concern, a referendum on
continued membership raises all kinds of fascinating questions about
both the United Kingdom's own horizons and what it can offer to the
Union's vision of itself. 'Britain's Europe' is a vital intervention at
a moment of both great danger and great opportunity.

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241275962

Cost: £4, available in store. Tickets can be redeemed against the cost of 'Britain's Europe' (R.R.P. £20, Hardback).