Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. European Union and the Deconstruction of the Rhineland Frontier
  • Cited by 25
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
July 2010
Print publication year:
2008
Online ISBN:
9780511720550
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511720550
Subjects:
Area Studies, European History: General Interest, History, European Studies, Politics and International Relations, International Relations and International Organisations
Information

Book description

The Rhineland region includes the core regional economy of western Europe, encompassing Belgium, Luxemburg and parts of the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Germany. Throughout history there have been tensions between this region's roles as a frontier and as western Europe's economic core. Michael Loriaux argues that the European Union arose from efforts to deconstruct this frontier. He traces Rhineland geopolitics back to its first emergence, restoring frontier deconstruction to the forefront of discussion about the EU. He recounts how place names were manipulated to legitimate political power and shows how this manipulation generated the geopolitics that the EU now tries to undo. Loriaux also argues that the importance of this issue has significantly affected the nature of the EU's development and helps condition a festering legitimation crisis.

Reviews

‘European Union and the Deconstruction of the Rhineland Frontier is nothing short of a reinterpretation of European history since pre-Roman times. It is a work of tremendous thought and scholarship, involving research in at least four languages, that gives us an entirely new way to think about national and European identity. This book is not only brilliant, it is path-breaking, and likely to be a landmark in its field.’

Harvey B. Feigenbaum - The George Washington University

‘Loriaux not only draws on the works of political geographers, international political economists, international relations specialists and historians, but integrates their insights in an approach that takes culture seriously. Challenging, interesting and illuminating.’

Friedrich Kratochwil - European University Institute

‘Drawing on Derrida and his notion that texts function as coups de force, Loriaux deconstructs a handful of discursive coups over two thousand years of history – Caesar’s The Gallic Wars (1st c. BC), The Donation of Constantine (8th c.), the so-called works of Ossian (1760s), and a French constitutional decree dividing revolutionary France into departments – to show how these coups fractured and melded mental space in the Rhenish heart of Europe, prompted the development of the modern state and nurtured the national idea, reordered land use and commercial practice, impoverished and enriched communities, and finally made the map of Europe seem natural and inevitable. Loriaux tells this story with stunning control over his source material and unfaltering fluency. The book has a compelling narrative drive – as they say so often about pot-boilers, it’s a page turner. A radically original interpretation of Franco-German history, seen from the banks of a great river system, this book is not potboiler but a Bildungsroman.’

Nicholas G. Onuf - Florida International University

‘Michael Loriaux has written a concise, well-judged and most useful analysis of the history, political economy, and 'space' of the Rhineland frontier. It is really rare to find such a wonderful conjunction of history, geography and theory between two covers. His deeply informed and novel conception of this critically placed place and space will be essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the formation and contemporary significance of the European Union.’

Bruce Cumings - University of Chicago

'Readers who want to explore the EU's linguistic struggle to legitimate itself with reference to the European past will find this book intelligent and informative.'

Source: The Journal of Central European History

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.