Prof David Stevenson SAR 3.11 and Prof Nicholas Ludlow SAR 2.16

This course is available on the MA in Asian and International History (LSE and NUS), MA in Modern History, MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in European and International Public Policy, MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in History of International Relations, MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International and Asian History, MSc in International and World History (LSE & Columbia) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

A prior knowledge of 20th century European history will be an advantage. Students unfamiliar with the subject should do some preliminary reading. A reading knowledge of French and/or German will be useful but in no sense essential.

The antecedents and development of Western European integration from the First World War to the 1990s. European integration before 1914; German and Allied projects during the First World War; inter-war developments and the Briand Plan; the Nazi New 'Order'; Resistance and Allied planning during the Second World War; the impact of the Marshall Plan; Federalism and Christian Democracy; the Schuman Plan and the Coal and Steel Community; the European Defence Community project; the Treaties of Rome; the Common Agricultural Policy; the integration policies of the Six and Britain; de Gaulle and the Communities; enlargement; monetary integration; developments in the 1970s and 1980s; Treaty of Maastricht.

Lectures will be online. The School aims to run in-person seminars, subject to circumstances, with some online provision if and where necessary.

There will be a reading week in the Michaelmas and the Lent Terms.

Three essays will be required in the course of the year. The essay in the LT will be an assessed piece of work counting towards the final assessment. 

Full bibliographies are provided. As introductory reading, students should consult: P M Stirk, A History of European Integration since 1914 (London, 1996); D. Dinan, ed, Origins and Evolution of the  European Union (Oxford, 2006);M. Gilbert, European Integration: a Concise History (Lanham, Md, 2012); J Gillingham, Coal, Steel, and the Rebirth of Europe, 1945-55 (Cambridge, 1991); A S Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe,1945-51 (London, 1984); A S Milward, The European Rescue of the Nation State (London, 1992); N P Ludlow, Dealing with Britain: the Six and the First UK Application to the EEC (Cambridge, 1997); W I Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954 (Chapel Hill, 1998); A Moravcsik, The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht (Cornell, 1998); N P Ludlow, The European Community and the Crises of the 1960s (London, 2006); W. Kaiser, Christian Democracy and the Origins of the European Union (London, 2008); W. Kaiser, B. Leucht and M. Rasmussen, . The History of the European Union: Origins of a Trans- and Supranational Polity 1950-72 (London, 2009); A C Knudsen, Farmers on Welfare: The Making of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (Cornell, 2009).

Exam (75%, duration: 3 hours) in the summer exam period.
Essay (25%) in the LT.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.