European Union and the Deconstruction of the Rhineland Frontier

Examines problems posed by the history of the Rhineland region and its effects upon the foundation of the European Union.

Michael Loriaux (Author)

9780521707077, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 September 2008

350 pages, 9 b/w illus. 41 maps 2 tables
22.8 x 15.3 x 2.2 cm, 0.56 kg

'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.' The Journal of Central European History

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.

1. Myth and geopolitics of the Rhineland frontier
2. Trans Rhenum incolunt: the inauguration of the Rhineland frontier
3. A 'principality of priests': the inauguration of Europe
4. Anonymity and prosperity
5. The great antecedent cracking
6. Coups de force: Ossian and the département
7. Wacht am Rhein: the Ossianic fracture of Rhineland space
8. Carolingian discourse and Rhineland pacification
9. Spatial representation and the political imagination.

Subject Areas: Geography [RG], International relations [JPS], European history [HBJD]