Nationhood and Roots

Abstract

"The relationship between religious, national and wider European or global identity' is one of the most disturbing and fascinating questions of the late twentieth century. With the end of National Socialism in Germany and Fascism in Italy, Western Europe was charged with a burst of idealism and hope that never again would the continent be convulsed by the effects of nationalist aggression. The founding fathers of what is now the European Union shaped a clear vision of a Europe whose peoples would proceed towards ever closer union. The means to this end was the integration of the economies of Europe's nation states."