British policy towards European integration has been one of the most divisive issues in British politics since 1945. Based on a detailed evaluation of the newly-accessible government records, of the Conservative Party records, private papers and interviews, this timely book analyses British European policy between 1945 and de Gaulle's veto against British EEC membership in 1963. It explores, in particular, the ambiguities in Britain's first EEC application of 1961. The epilogue highlights some of the most important continuities in British European policy until the present.

WOLFRAM KAISER is Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Vienna. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen, Germany and a Lecturer at Edinburgh University. Dr Kaiser has published widely on the history of European integration and on postwar British history.

Preface to the 1999 Reprint General Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Building and Defending a British Europe, 1945-55 What Bus? The Messina Conference, 1955 Best of all Worlds: The Free Trade Area Plan, 1956-7 Makeshift Solution: From FTA to EFTA, 1958-9 Dual Appeasement: Towards the EEC Application, 1960-1; From Laggard to Leader?; The Bomb and Europe Failure, yet Success: the EEC Entry Negotiations, 1961-3 Epilogue: Britain and European Integration, 1963-96 Notes Bibliography Index