Putting the present crisis of the European Union into a historical and geopolitical context
To understand the current difficulties and future prospects of European integration, multiple perspectives are required. The essays in this collection explore historical and geopolitical aspects of European integration and their relevance to interpretations of the current climate. They also examine the different regional dynamics of integration and the attitudes that result from those experiences, including those in European peripheries which are so often overshadowed by the dominant centres. In drawing all of these perspectives together, the collection allows the reader to assess the EU's current crisis in context.
Johann P. Arnason is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, La Trobe University, an Associate of the Faculty of Human Studies, Charles University, Prague and an Editor-at-Large of Social Imaginaries.

Johann P. Arnason is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Human Studies at Charles University, Prague. He taught sociology in Heidelberg and Bielefeld from 1972 to 1975, and at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, from 1975 to 2003. He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and at the University of Leipzig, and a research fellow of the Alexander v. Humboldt-Stiftung, the Swedish Institute of Advanced Studies, the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Essen), the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in Göttingen and the Max-Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt. His research interests centre on social theory and historical sociology, with particular emphasis on the comparative analysis of civilizations.

1. Introduction: Perspectives on European Unity and Diversity, Johann P. Arnason; 2. Europe as a Civilisation and the Hidden Structure of Modernity, Toby E. Huff; 3. To Hell and Beyond: The European Civilisational Crisis of the Twentieth Century, Johann P. Arnason; 4. The Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Crisis of Contemporary Europe, Helmut Kuzmics; 5. Europe in Crisis: The History, the Players and the Stakes,
Dennis Smith; 6. Constitutionalism, Judicialisation and Human Rights in the Integration of European Society, Paul Blokker; 7. Islam and the European Crisis: Reciprocal Discrimination and Co-Radicalisation, Natalie J. Doyle; 8. Central and Eastern Europe: The New Core or the Periphery of Europe, Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski; 9. Scandinavia Within and Without Europe, Bo Stråth; 10. Conceit and Deceit in the European Union: Imaginaries of Europe and a Pan-Eurasian Alternative, Chris Hann.