Reviews for The End of European Integration

The average rating for The End of European Integration based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-07-25 00:00:00 Cynthia Thawley I used this as the textbook for a class on post-war Germany. Jarausch goes beyond a recitation of dates and events to investigate aspects of intellectual history and "Alltagsgeschichte," or history of daily life, all while pursuing a central, organizing question: have the Germans in fact rejoined the "civilized world" and established a robust, democratic civil society? (On balance his answer is "yes.") The result is a book that attempts to communicate not only what the Germans did and had done to them post-1945, but also how they felt about it. The book's major weakness is its superficial treatment of East Germany. Jarausch takes the view that it is time to write post-war German history as ONE history, rather than parallel histories of the two Germanies. But, writing in a period of post-Cold War triumphalism, Jarausch seems far less interested in the experience of East Germans. This results in a less-than-balanced treatment of the two parallel societies, at least until the GDR's final decade and the aftermath of unification.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-04-25 00:00:00 Wei Kong The organization leaves much to be desired and the writing style is exceedingly dry. Despite the importance of the subject, it rests on broad conclusions and assumptions about societal perceptions rather than citing evidence from the era's policymakers and their aims, which would be exceedingly useful to policymakers today. The narrative is ungrounded, jumping from decade to decade and back again, with no recall to previous passages to drive any central thesis home. Perhaps my biggest gripe is the blatant disregard for social liberal/ democratic socialist constructs, with a rigid adherence to the "sanctity" of free markets, as if the West v East German perspective put an end to the debate between the only two available options. If you're one of the unfortunate students forced to read this book, I highly recommend reading only the beginning sections of each chapter and part. It will be the best way to lift any kind of consistent narrative from these pages.