Writing the Rules for Europe Experts, Cartels, and International Organizations [Hardcover]

Drawing on fresh archival evidence, this book tells the story of how experts, cartels and international organizations have written the rules for Europe since around 1850. It shows that the present-day European Union was a latecomer in European integration, which is embedded in a long-term technocratic internationalist tradition.Introduction. - 1. Origins of Technocratic Internationalism. - 2. The Power and Fragility of Experts. - 3. From Divided Europe to 'Core Europe'. - 4. Europe of the Standard Gauge. - 5. Tensions in Railway Europe 6. Canons and Cartels. - 7. Technology Cooperation in Steel Europe. - 8. Towards European Union Hegemony Conclusion

Many studies have been done on Aristide Briand or Walter Rathenau, who led European integration efforts in France and Germany during the interwar year. There are fewer contributions on telecommunication or railway engineers, with a comparable focus on integration. Writing the Rules for Europe provides this rather neglected perspective. It is easy to read, but at the same time offers shrewd insights into the underlying technological structures of European integration, which should be valuable to scholars and the general public alike. (Thomas Hoerber, Journal of Contemporary European Research JCER, Vol. 14 (03), 2018)

Writing the Rules of Europe provides a 150-year history of the hidden expert-driven integration of Europe, which eventually led the EU to become the most important and contested producer of rules, regulations and systems for transnational interaction in Europe. & the book connects the history of technology, perspectives from transnational and global history, and European integration history in a way that is refreshing and, for the field of European integration history, absolutely vital. (Haakon A. Ikonomou, European History Quarterly, Vol. 47 (3), July, 2017) 

The book is a guide to the processes which clS,