Hugo Young Archives - Bob on Books

This Blessed Plot: Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair by Hugo Young
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Great Britain’s relationship with Europe is the classic approach-avoidance conflict. Britain initially supported European union as much as a way to prevent a return to war as anything. As the various countries of Europe recovered, economic union became more attractive to foster British trade, particularly in a post-colonial commonwealth. The sticking point, however, grasped from the very beginning but never resolved, was how to enjoy the advantages of the European Economic Community, which Great Britain entered in 1973 under the Heath government without surrendering its sovereignty and parliamentary power, and the British pound. That is true to this day. In January 2013, the Cameron government promised a referendum if they remained in power beyond 2015 on whether Great Britain would remain in the European Union. Euro-skepticism is alive and well.

Hugo Young’s book is a chronicle of this history from Churchill’s post-war government up to the beginnings of Tony Blair’s Labor Movement in 1999. Young gives us a detailed account of both the international and internal political maneuverings around Union, including de Gaulle’s pre-emptive refusal to vote for Britain’s admittance during the 60s, the successful entrance under Heath followed by the fall of his government, the MacMillan referendum in 1975 in which the British people voted to stay in and the ambivalence of the Thatcher and Major regimes which negotiated Maastricht which took further steps toward the euro while leaving Britain with an opt-out. He concludes with the beginnings of the Blair government and a much more warm-hearted embrace of Europe. It is plain in the conclusion that Young hoped this would succeed in overcoming the ambivalent relationship. Sadly, it appears he was wrong.

I suspect that the 500 pages of detail would be interesting for those fascinated with Britain’s relationship with Europe. A briefer account that didn’t give every tortuous detail would have been fine with me. All the detail is probably valuable as a historical record but it didn’t add to my understanding.

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For a time, the GoodReads widget on my blog kept you informed of what was on my “currently reading” shelf. For the past week or so that has not been working and none of the bulletin boards I’ve consulted have shown me how to fix this.

So I thought I might give you a quick update of what I’m reading that you can look forward (or not!) to seeing me review in the not-too-distant future. I actually have a number of books going at present because of groups I’m in and other projects as well as what I’m reading just for the interest of it. I will include Amazon links so you can see more info about each of these books.

1. John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University. This is a collection of a lecture series and other occasional talks in which Newman lays out his vision for a Catholic university and university education in general. Dense reading with at least one interesting idea in each lecture so far–and some things with which I’d take great exception, particularly what I think is an elitist view of the university. Our Dead Theologians group stopped reading after the first set of lectures–I hope to get around to re-reading the second set (last time over 20 years ago) sometime soon.

2. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow. I’m reading this on my Kindle and nearly through it. Alexander is an Ohio State law professor who makes the case that The War on Drugs, policing patterns, sentencing guidelines, and post-incarceration stigmas contribute to creating a permanent underclass of blacks and Latinos. A challenging book.

3. James Wilhoit and Evan Howard, Discovering Lectio Divina. This is a good introductio with much practical help into this ancient practice of reflectively reading scripture.

4. James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God. Smith contends that many of us have distorted images of God that distort our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the world. Through chapters exploring the character of God and “soul-training” exercises, he helps us see the source of goodness, truth, and beauty.

5. Hugo Young, This Blessed Plot. Just started in on this one so will be with it for awhile. Young explores the post World War II history of Great Britain and its policy toward Europe through the lives of those who helped shape that from the time of Churchill to Tony Blair.

6. Ron Highfield, God, Freedom, and Human Dignity. This is a distillation of the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor looking at how we derive our sense of identity–do we source this in ourselves feeling our freedom and dignity threatened by God, or do we source this in God, understanding that we find our freedom and dignity through Him?

7. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory. Our Dead Theologians group decide to pick this up as easier reading than Newman. One of the essays I’ve most appreciated in this collection is “Learning in Wartime” in which Lewis answers the question of why should one devote oneself to higher learning when their are so many other “great matters” at hand–a perennial question faced by the graduate students I work with.

So those are the books scattered about my house that I am currently reading. I look forward to sharing reviews of many of them in the near future. So, what are you reading that you think I might be interested in?