Journal of European Integration History - Centre d'études et de ...

Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen
165
Wolfram KAISER, Brigitte LEUCHT, Morten RASMUSSEN, The History of
the European Union: Origins of a trans- and supranational polity, 1950-1972,
Routledge, London, 2009, xii + 228 p. – ISBN 978-0-415-46393-5 – 70,00 £.
This edited volume wants to ‘reconceptualise the history of the present-day European
Union’ (p.1), to ‘upgrade the conceptual sophistication of empirical source-based
research on EU history’ and to invite fellow historians to ‘engage more effectively
with the work of social scientists’ (p.5). This is indeed a mighty task and the editors
and contributors tackle it with enthusiasm and thoroughness.
The book consists of an introduction signed by the three editors, two methodological
chapters by Wolfram Kaiser and Morten Rasmussen and eight empirical chapters
that focus on specific aspects of transnational and supranational polity and that
want to be examples of the new methodology outlined in the first part of the book.
The conclusion by Alex Warleigh-Lack reflects on the prospects for collaborations
between political scientists and historians.
Readers of Kaiser’s work are already familiar with his methodology, which aims
to apply institutionalist theories and network-focussed approaches to historical research.
In his chapter, Kaiser argues again effectively in favour of the application of
these categories in the historical field as a tool to achieve a more sophisticated understanding
of the history of the integration process. Rasmussen builds upon what is
said by Kaiser and carries out a careful examination of different institutionalist theories
– and an acute criticism of Moravcsik’s work – that may contribute to historical
research into the history of the EEC/EU. It should be pointed out that both Kaiser and
Rasmussen see social science theories as something that may further equip ‘the toolbox
of historians with heuristic ideas and hypotheses for refining their historical narrative’
(p.6) and not as something that needs to replace the existing historical methodology
altogether.
In the first empirical chapter, Brigitte Leucht looks at the transatlantic policy
community of academics, civil servants and policy-makers that worked towards a
competition and consumer-friendly anti-trust policy within the ECSC. By looking at
the case of the Committee of Common Market Automobile Constructors, Sigfriedo
M. Ramírez Pérez examines how transnational business networks influenced industrial
policy at the EC level in the early 1970s. Perhaps in a more traditional vein,
Kristian Steinnes looks at the position of the Northern European Socialist party networks
during the 1967 EEC applications. Jan-Henrik Meyer examines role of journalists
in shaping transnational communication at the time of The Hague Summit.
Journalists are here seen as an epistemic community that creates a new transnational
communication dimension through the transfer of ideas and views across boundaries.
The very interesting chapter by Katja Seidel investigates the lawyers and economists
with ordoliberal training dominated the DG IV for competition policy. The equally