Europa: How Europe Shaped the Modern World

Brexit, mass migration, the Eurozone crisis, austerity, prevailing nationalism—each of these seems to indicate the EU is heading toward a sundering or at least a dramatic restructuring. However, MacLennan (history, London Sch. of Economics; Spain and the Process of European Integration) believes that there is still promise for the EU, and Europe generally, that the continent can be the primary positive agent in global affairs, and that the last 500 years of its history is responsible for the shape of the world today. As such, the author argues that Europeans should have both a collective identity and collective pride. Beginning with the Renaissance, MacLennan highlights European achievements, focusing on the emergence of key technologies, discoveries and philosophies, and how the people interacted with their neighbors and migrated across every continent. Some will balk at the hagiographic and reactionary treatments of men such as Christopher Columbus and Hernán Cortés, the sometimes off-hand dismissals of other achievements, and the author's great-man formulation of history. And yet, this capacious study is learned, often persuasive, and is a tincture for Western cynicism.