Abstract
Alan S. Milward and Contemporary European History marks the latest contribution of the editors, both former students of Milward, to ‘preserve and present the work of Alan S. Milward to future generations’ (p. viii), following the excellent collection of essays published as Alan S. Milward and a Century of European Change in 2012. This new volume takes an unusual format: an exhaustive collection of 241 book reviews written by Milward between 1965 and 2007, arranged chronologically. This reader was initially struck by the range of works reviewed. While deservedly remembered for his ground-breaking work on European integration history, Milward nonetheless published four monographs on the Second World War and engages extensively in his reviews with some of the most important publications on that conflict to have emerged in recent decades, in addition to works of nineteenth-century economic history.
One of the great virtues of this volume is that it allows Milward to clarify his own arguments, which have been challenged since their initial publication. One highlight is Milward’s extended review of Michael Hogan’s The Marshall Plan (pp. 254–74). Hogan’s book remains the best diplomatic history of the Marshall Plan, while it counters several of the conclusions advanced by Milward in his own landmark study, The Reconstruction of Western Europe, published three years earlier. Milward’s review of Hogan’s work thus amounts to a sustained discussion of the relative strengths and weaknesses of both works and their respective methodologies, allowing the reader to appreciate the complementarity of the two key studies. In addition to being a stimulating read for historians of twentieth-century Europe, this review would be a valuable teaching tool for setting out the historiographical debates surrounding the Marshall Plan.
This collection also allows Milward to respond, in his own words, to trends in the more recent literature on European integration which challenge the arguments articulated in his opus The European Rescue of the Nation State. One such trend has been a greater focus on the history of the institutions of the European Community rather than on the national governments of the member states, an approach made possible by the ongoing declassification of the archives of the European institutions and by the progressively greater role played by the European institutions since the 1960s. While Milward famously argued that European integration came about because the governments of the respective member states believed that their national interests would best be served by a limited pooling of sovereignty at the supranational level, his focus on the 1940s and 1950s means that his published books do not engage with the emergence of a powerful, relatively autonomous European Commission. How well does Milward’s thesis hold up in the era of a strong and ambitious Commission, best exemplied by the presidency of Jacques Delors (1985–95)? Amongst Milward’s book reviews, we have a clear answer from the author himself. In his review of George Ross’ Jacques Delors and European Integration, still one of the best accounts of the Delors Commission, Milward reiterates that ‘power lies not in the Community but in the national capitals’ (pp. 411–3). He goes on to explain that Delors was able to exercise an unusual degree of power only ‘because of a window of international opportunity, which was then closed by the spreading fears and uncertainties over what the end of the Cold War really portended’ (p. 412). In the end, Milward concludes that ‘the Commissioners … pursued the policies of their national governments’ (p. 413). While such debates will doubtless continue, Milward’s interpretation of the role of nation states in the era of the Delors Commission is a particularly welcome contribution.
In addition to the reviews themselves, this volume benefits from a stimulating essay by the editors which provides a brief overview of Milward’s work and, more provocatively, offers a Milwardian analysis of the ongoing Eurozone crisis. Recalling Milward’s argument that integration in postwar Europe was ‘a choice made by democratically-elected governments to strengthen democracy by furthering the national economic interest’ (p. 2), Guirao and Lynch warn that the perceived imposition of austerity measures by the EU on member states in recent years (with insufficient care of domestic considerations) risks undermining national democracy and hence, in Milward’s view, the very foundations of European integration. Published shortly before the vote for Brexit and a series of uncertain elections across Europe in 2017, such a warning reminds us of the continuing relevance of Milward’s work.
This book will be enlightening to any students or scholars seeking a more complete understanding of Milward’s work. Given the breadth of topics with which Milward engages in his reviews, it is likely that readers will dip in and out to read the reviews most relevant for their purposes (facilitated by a detailed index). While this volume may not be essential reading along the lines of The European Rescue of the Nation State, it is a valuable contribution to our understanding of a gifted historian and to the history – and future – of European integration.