Comprehensive history of the EU.

Excellent history of the EC, EEC, EU. Knowledgeable and entertaining lecturer who deftly explained complex ideas.

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No great insights

Nothing much I didn’t know about the history of the EU before listening to this audiobook.Also,it’s a bit outdated.No mention at all of the referendum in 2016 regarding UK membership of the EU.Overall,I’m a bit disappointed.

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Trite, predictable, disappointing

This seems to be a series of lectures recorded by a British 'academic', recorded live in front of Dutch students. It's a digitisation of a set of CDs used as a learning resource – which dates it to being at least a decade old or more.

In terms of content it's far from definitive – although to be fair there are some small nuggets of information that I didn't know. I was thankful for small mercies...

My problem with it was that it reminded me why I hated doing my Masters Degree in politics, all those years ago. The lecturer is straight out of 'academic' central casting – a kind of latter-day 'History Man' from Malcolm Bradbury.

He's achingly left wing (but not in an authentic Tony Benn, Barbara Castle or Peter Shore way), and sneers at everything "the British" did and whilst fawningly explaining the apparently sound and honest logic behind the behaviour of France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Belgium. Apparently whenever the UK acts in its national interest it is "nationalism", whereas the same doesn't apply to any other country – it's perfectly fine for them to act in their respective national interests.

Worse still are the silly voices that our "historian" does when reading out speeches by Thatcher and others – Monty Python-style. Surprisingly, the likes of Charles de Gaulle don't get the same treatment.

I can see myself aged 21 being impressed by this and thinking the lecturer is "cool" – but at well over twice this age I found it cringeworthy. Style is tediously predictable and substance is further lessened by some schoolboy errors. Apparently the 66%-34% majority to stay in the EEC in 1975 was "a three-to-one majority"!

Sigh. Never let a Humanities graduate near numbers...

I digress.

I had high hopes, but am very disappointed. All this does is show the conceit that's endemic in academia – and how academics wing it so much. Apparently opponents of the EU are all evil right wing Daily Mail reading nationalists, such is the groupthink. You might as well listen to James O'Brien on LBC, if you want this sort of narrative. The lectures are basically a few key historical dates pulled off Google plus a shed load of boiler-plate middle class left wing invective.

I would instead point readers towards a much classier commentator, namely Robert Tombs. He has superior insights into the social, cultural and historical reasons for the UK leaving the EU. No sneering condescension, either.

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