Book reviews
“Driven by crisis and facing unpredictable hazards, the EU has, Van Middelaar argues, emerged as a community of fate. It is a community that can no longer pretend to be the local realisation of the universal values of the UN. It has come into its own as an entity with its own distinct and selfish interests, and as such it has finally become a vehicle for raison d’état in the classic sense.”
The New Statesman, Adam Tooze, Jan. 2022
Can Europe tame pandemonium?
“Ruská agrese proti Ukrajině ukázala mnohé a mimo jiné taky odhalila jednotu Západu, jakou asi čekal málokdo. Neplatí to jen o vztahu mezi EU a Spojenými státy, ale snad ještě víc o vztazích mezi jednotlivými členskými zeměmi EU. Ona tak často vysmívaná sedmadvacítka, obviňovaná jedněmi ze snahy o vznik superstátu, druhými z paralýzy a neakceschopnosti, uvalila na Rusko nečekaně tvrdé sankce a jasně podpořila Ukrajinu.”
Český rozhlas, Ondřej Houska, June 2022
Luuk van Middelaar: Pandemonium, záchrana Evropy. Unie se pod tíhou krize nerozpadla, naopak posílila
“Noch auf dem Höhepunkt der Pandemiein Europa, aber schon inder Überzeugung angelegt, dasssich die Krise überwinden lassen werde, hat der Historiker und politische Philosoph Luuk van Middelaar eine brillante Studie über den Apparat der EU geschrieben, der seiner Meinung nach eine Metamorphosewider Willen von der Regel- zur Ereignispolitik durchmachen musste.”
Stuttgarter Zeitung, Mirko Weber, Juni 2021
Das europäische Pandämonium.
“Der niederländische Historiker und Politikwissenschaftler Luuk van Middelaar beschreibt in „Das europäische Pandämonium“ die Umwälzungen, die die EU in der Pandemie erfährt. Dabei werden Entwicklungen sichtbar, die schon länger andauern.”
Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Sieglinde Geisel, Juni 2021
Die Metamorphose der EU
“Aus der praktischen Erkenntnis,dass die Gewährleistung ausreichender eigener Produktion oder die Beschaffung medizinischen und pharmazeutischen Materials absolut zentralist, zieht van Middelaar grundsätzliche Schlüsse mit Blick auf den «geopolitischen Titanenkampf» der nächsten Jahrzehnte zwischen China und Amerika: «Ohne strategische Autonomie keine narrative Souveränität.”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Thomas Speckmann, Juni 2021
Die Pandemie könnte läuternd wirken auf Europa
“Die Europäische Union wird durch Krisen lebensnah und stark. Diese These belegt der niederländische Philosoph Luuk van Middelaar überzeugend in seinem Buch „Das europäische Pandämonium.”
Deutschlandfunk, Christoph Schäfer, Juni 2021
Luuk van Middelaar: Krise stärkt die EU
“Der niederländische Staatsphilosoph Luuk van Middelaar analysiert in „Das europäische Pandämonium“die Veränderungen, die Corona in Europa bewirkt hat, und ortet das Entstehen einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit.”
Die Presse, Michael Laczynski, Mai 2021
Wie die EU lernte, mit der Pandemie umzugehen
Academic reviews
“Luuk van Middelaar’s most recent book on Europe, like his previous work, is serious stuff […] While in the Community world “politicization” of European integration is a threat as it may wake up the sleeping dogs of political passions, interfering with the technical making of efficient rules, for van Middelaar’s Europe, it is the indispensable driving force for it becoming not just integrated but unified, a political entity with a will to power.”
Society, Wolfgang Streeck, September 2022
Not Quite Enough: How the Pandemic Failed to Save Europe
“This analysis supports the conclusion that van Middelaar has thrown light on a developing democratic context. It is a context in which both those who participate in high politics and citizens engage in processes of reflection that concern the deployment of power in response to socially disruptive contingencies. The Covid-19 crisis provides a clear instance of such a contingency. Rules-politics as van Middelaar describes it provides an unpromising (because inflexible) basis on which to make an effective response to such a source of disruption. Events-politics, leavened with commitment to an egalitarian philosophy of government, provides a more fitting mode of response. While an ideal (res publica) inflects democracy on this model, it is, procedurally, a rather rough and ready affair. Whatever its shortcomings, it lends some plausibility to the view that we can find in the EU the outlines of a community of destiny.”
The Political Quarterly, Richard Mullender, July 2022
Did Covid-19 transform the European Union into a ‘community of destiny’?
“Cet ouvrage propose un décryptage méthodique de la prise de conscience par l’Europe de ses fragilités dans la géopolitique du XXIe siècle.”
OpenEdition, Ali Choukroun, Juillet 2022
Luuk van Middelaar, Le réveil géopolitique de l’Europe
Book reviews
“A brilliant series of case studies that illuminates different points in the creation of a new European political theater unscripted by the innumerable treaties and rules that created the EU as we know it today.”
New York Review of Books, James McAuley, August 15, 2019 Issue
A More Perfect Union?
“Part insider memoir and part commentary, this is probably the best analysis yet to appear of how the EU managed its recent crises over refugees, Ukraine, and the euro.”
Foreign Affairs, Andrew Moravcsik, Sept./Oct. 2019
Alarums & Excursions
“… refreshing and perceptive (…) Van Middelaar is a more thoughtful guide than most to these institutions and events, in part because he brings the eye of a political theorist to his years working for the European Council president. It is a scholar-cum-official blend of insights more common in Washington than in Brussels.”
Financial Times, Alex Barker, 25 May 2019
Redefining the role of the European Parliament
“brilliant… his discussion of the high politics of migration is the best thing yet written on the subject.”
Times Higher Education, Christopher Hill, 9 May 2019
Book of the Week
“Probably never before have different countries anywhere worked together on such an everyday basis. It’s a genuine concert of nations. The biggest states speak loudest in the European Council — at crucial moments, the whole room literally looks at Merkel — but Ireland and Malta get heard too. “The Union is not a state but a union of states,” concludes Van Middelaar.”
Financial Times (Magazine), Simon Kuper, 18 May 2019
Forget Brussels bureaucrats — national leaders run Europe
“The back of Luuk van Middelaar’s new book is covered in suspiciously effusive praise. Donald Tusk just loved it. Sir Ivan Rogers recommended it to both Europeans and Britons as a guide to understanding how the EU really works. And on it goes. But read the book, and it’s hard to disagree. Van Middelaar, a former adviser to Herman Van Rompuy, is a very fine writer and academic, and has penned the most insightful and original book on this era of European politics. (..) It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read and a true page-turner.”
Politico.eu, Florian Eder aka ‘Brussels Playbook’, 22 April 2019
Spring Books — Part I
“Luuk van Middelaar … argues that improvising its way through a decade of emergencies has changed the EU. He describes these crises, and Brexit in particular, as a ‘Machiavellian moment’.”
The Economist, ‘Charlemagne’, 13 April 2019
A Machiavellian Moment
“Alarums & Excursions by Luuk van Middelaar provides invaluable insights into how the EU tackled the eurozone, migration and Ukraine crises — and from a Dutch political thinker and historian who served in Brussels during the turmoil.”
Financial Times, Tony Barber, 2019
European elections: five books that look at the future of the EU
“Mycket har sagts och skrivits om behovet att tänka om och reformera EU. Men den holländske politologen Luuk van Middelaar är för mig den förste som övertygande lyckats identifiera skillnaderna mellan det gamla och det nya. Boken som på engelska heter Alarums & Excusions ger en sällsynt insiktsfull analys av dagens EU.”
Svenska Dagbladet, Rolf Gustavsson, 27 April 2019
Ständig krishantering hindrar EU:s funktion
“Une brillante analyse de dix années de crises.. Garanti sans langue de bois eurocratique.”
LE FIGARO, Charles Jaigu, 25 octobre 2018
L’Europe improvise enfin!
“Décrypter la métamorphose de l’Union européenne (..) sans sombrer ni dans le catastrophisme ni dans l’angélisme: telle est la vertu du nouvel ouvrage de Luuk van Middelaar.”
LE MONDE, Philippe Ricard, 19 novembre 2018
La mutation de l’UE à l’épreuve des crises
“La tentative la plus sérieuse et la plus aboutie de répondre à la vulgate europhobe”
L’EXPRESS, Alexis Lacroix, 21 novembre 2018
Macron pourra-t-il sauver l’Europe?
“Un acte de résistance aux différences culturelles qui divisent le Continent et à la fragmentation de l’information sur internet et les réseaux sociaux””
LA TRIBUNE DE GENEVE, FLORENCE AUTRET, 10 January 2019.
Bruxelles en pleine “improvisation”
“Van Middelaar voit surgir, au fur et à mesure des crises, des solutions en dehors des clous. Elles sont parfois malheureuses, parfois discutables, parfois inespérées, comme l’accord bancaire de juin 2012. Mais c’est une autre Europe qui s’invente, plus politique, bricoleuse, guidée par un instinct de survie collective sur lequel jusqu’ici peu étaient prêts à parier.”
LE TEMPS, Joëlle Kuntz, 21 novembre 2018
L’Europe en dehors des clous
“Un essai très éclairant”
LE POINT, Emmanuel Berreta, 18 octobre 2018
Luuk van Middelaar, un Européen sans complaisance
“Un essai brillant et captivant, moitié mémoire de ses années bruxelloises, moitié traité de philosophie politique appliqué aux acteurs, aux mots, aux images des institutions européennes. Ce penseur pro-européen est l’opposé du philosophe allemand Jürgen Habermas, chantre du «patriotisme constitutionnel». À l’inverse, l’auteur veut en finir avec une «pensée bruxelloise se plaçant hors de l’espace et du temps, au-dessus de la géographie et de l’Histoire»
FIGARO.FR (VOX), Benjamin Haddad, 8 January 2019.
L’Union européenne vit-elle un moment machiavélien?
“Avec une puissance d’analyse indéniable, Luuk van Middelaar passe en revue les dix dernières années de crises politiques traversées par l’Union. À la faveur des difficultés qu’elle rencontre, l’Europe ne peut plus s’appuyer uniquement sur son corpus de règles. Émerge alors une nouvelle catégorie : la politique de l’événement”.
Le Grand Continent, Sébastien Lumet, 30 août 2019.
Quand l’Europe improvise
“C’est le livre de la conscience de soi de l’Europe, un livre très hégélien. Il raconte le passé mais c’est vraiment au-delà et grâce au livre on aborde la question: comment l’Europe va aborder les tempêtes à venir?”
Olivier Pascal-Mousselard (Télérama) dans l’émission ‘Avis critique’ de France Culture
Fonctionner une question existentielle (disponible en audio)
“C’est un des grands livres de l’année (…) Luuk van Middelaar est en train de devenir un des intellectuels majeurs sur la scène européenne. Pourquoi : parce qu’il réinvente l’histoires des idées.”
Alexis Lacroix (L’Express) dans l’émission ‘Avis critique’ de France Culture
Fonctionner une question existentielle (disponible en audio)
“À l’approche des élections européennes du printemps 2019, s’il est un livre dont la lecture s’avère des plus urgentes, c’est incontestablement celui du néerlandais Luuk van Middelaar. (..) Sa double compétence d’intellectuel rompu au maniement des concepts et de témoin privilégié des arcanes bruxellois donne au livre une perspective et un ton aussi rares que précieux.”
Telos-eu.com, Jérome Perrier, 7 novembre 2018
2008-2018: le moment machiavélien de l’Europe
“Avec talent, Luuk van Middelaar illustre qu’une communauté politique est une communauté de récits, qui donne toute sa place à tous les acteurs sur scène, dans les tribunes et les coulisses.”
Michaël Malherbe, Lacomeuropéenne.fr, 7 novembre 2018
Le théâtre de l’Europe ou « quand l’Europe improvise », selon Luuk Van Middelaar
“Scherpzinnige gids in de Brusselse jungle”
DE VOLKSKRANT, HANS WANSINK, 11 Nov 2017
Van Middelaar is een goede gids door de Brusselse jungle
“Europa ondergaat aan radicale transformatie: wie wil begrijpen waarom dit gebeurt en welke gevolgen het heeft, moet het nieuwe boek van Luuk van Middelaar lezen.”
NRC HANDELSBLAD, CAROLINE DE GRUYTER, 1 dec. 2017
De EU behoeft meer oppositie en energie
“Luuk van Middelaar maakt de Europese Unie leesbaar. Messianistische visioenen of onheilspellende doembeelden zitten hem daarbij niet in de weg.”
KNACK, PETER CASTEELS, 18 Oct 2017
Europa. Een nieuwe politiek, voor wie het wil zien
“Consistent, helder en beeldend; voortbouwend op zijn dissertatie De passage naar Europa en gebruik makend van kennis en inzichten opgedaan in de Brusselse keuken.”
CLINGENDAEL SPECTATOR, JAN ROOD, Nov 2017
Een insidersblik op de nieuwe politiek van Europa
“Terwijl veel Europaboeken saai en stug zijn, bevat dit talloze spannende passages, een coherente visie en originele invalshoeken. En vooral, het is ontiegelijk inspirerend en rijk aan ideeën in vergelijking met de talloze schrille en schrale anti-Europapamfletten die de markt overspoelen.”
LIBERALES, LEO DE HAES, 1 Nov 2017.
De nieuwe politiek van Europa
Academic reviews
For Bologna-based scholar Mark Gilbert, writing in the authoritative JCMS, Alarums and Excursions is “one of the most thoughtful and uncompromising books to appear on the EU in recent years. It should be widely read by EU specialists and used as a core text for EU studies in advanced graduate seminars.”
Journal of Common Market Studies, November 2019, pp. 1202-1203.
In an essay on three recent studies on the EU, political scientist and former high official Martin Westlake calls Alarums and Excursions “an elegant and magisterial follow-up to his 2013 study, The Passage to Europe … Van Middelaar writes in a literary style which is immensely pleasurable to read and lards the texts with insights from classical philosophers and strategists which further enhance the pleasure”
European Political Science Review, June 2019, online version.
In EJIL’s blog on the editors’ favourite books of 2019, alongside the latest Habermas and Zuboff’s Age of Surveillance Capitalism, legal scholar Johann Justus Vasel picks Van Middelaar’s Alarums and Excursions: “While it reads like a thriller, this book provides one of the most lucid and profound analyses of European politics in recent years. … This perspicuous, arresting, and insightful book on Europe is a must-read for every practitioner, student and scholar interested in the Union.”
European Journal Of International Law, 16 December 2019, blog.
“[Written] succinctly and elegantly, moving seamlessly between Machiavelli and the nitty-gritty of daily EU politics”, according to Leonard Schutte (Maastricht University) van Middelaar’s book “should be required reading for scholars, practitioners and interested members of the public alike.”
International Affairs 95, 2019/6, pp. 1456-1457.
“This splendid new volume, written by perhaps the ultimate ‘insider’ … is far more than an insider’s account of the current dilemmas of the EU”, esteems reviewer Derek Hawes: “The author pursues a fascinating discussion on the nature of ‘opposition’ as perceived in Brussels … [and] also exposes the way in which constitutional and procedural ‘depoliticisation’ is used to place certain policy options outside the political arena, removing from view those responsible for a given decision … will become perhaps one of the most important texts for students, teachers and would-be reformers for many years to come.”
Journal of Contemporary European Studies 27, 2019/3, PP. 375-376
In an engaged review for the website for books & ideas “La Vie des Idées”, Julien Barroche (INALCO, Paris) is happy to find in Quand l’Europe improvise the qualities of The Passage to Europe: “the same free and vigorous voice, the same depth of analysis and the same effort to not cloak the learned discourse on Europe in specialists’ language”. The author characterizes Van Middelaar’s perspective as both “empathic”, since the convulsive political crises are interpreted as birth pangs of a more political Europe, as well as “lucid”, for its sober acknowledgment that there is still a long way to go. While appreciating the book’s focus and consistency, Julien Barroche regrets that Van Middelaar only briefly mentions the needed change of policies (in a new balance between freedoms and protection), nor is he fully convinced that the type of political opposition Van Middelaar analyzes is needed (and with which he agrees), is possible within the EU.
LA VIE DES IDEES, Le long chemin vers l’Europe politique, 9 January 2019 (in French).
In the Modern Law Review, reviewer Jacob van de Beeten appreciates the “rich and detailed” assessment in Alarams & Excursions of recent crisis episodes and welcomes the book as “a challenge and an invitation to legal scholars to rethink the interaction between law and politics in the EU”
Modern Law Review 83 (2020) vol. 3; pp. 717-721.
“The [book’s] main message is one of preeminent importance and entails an assignment for the future. In a world where history is open once more, the Union will be called upon to act again and again. Yet who acts, and what solutions are taken, will be a matter of politics: in doing so, it will have to give a place to encounter praise, contempt and tough choices, instead of hiding behind technicalities and consensus.” In a long review essay for the European Constitutional Law Review on Van Middelaar’s work, the author, Wiebe Hommes (University of Amsterdam), locates in his 1999 book on French political philosophy (Politicide) the start of a permanent search for a plural political space. As to De nieuwe politiek, the reviewer highlights its analysis of the emancipation of the executive in the EU, focusing on the European Council (“a sharp and valuably analysis”), the Commission as well as the EU agencies (“the shadow of administrative hubris hangs over them”).
European Constitutional Law Review (2018) pp. 1-11 (printed version to follow).
In a long review for the Paris-based think-tank Institut Jacques Delors, political scientist Thierry Chopin (Université catholique de Lille), appreciates how Quand l’Europe improvise puts political reflections centre stage: “Europe is confronted to multiple crises which call for determination, decision-taking power and a legitimate capacity to act and this fundamental enquiry constitutes the heart of Luuk van Middelaar’s reflection.” The author sees it as one of the first books to draw the lessons from ten years of crises, and very “stimulating” at that, but has a number of interrogations, for instance concerning the authority and efficiency of the European Council as a plural decision-taking body. However, the author fully agrees with Van Middelaar that the situation asks to take on a certain number of taboos and give credible answers to the fundamental issues of Europe’s external borders and identity.
Institut Jacques Delors, Europe: la nécessité d’agir, 6 November 2018 (in French).
In the review of the French academic association L’OURS (office universitaire de recherche socialiste), reviewer Alain Bergounioux agrees with the main interpretations and conclusions offered by Quant l’Europe improvise — the need to act pragmatically in times of crisis, the conflicting institutional logics within the EU, the importance of allowing opposition and contradiction — but remarks in conclusion that relying on “improvisation”, even if it worked so far, is not a guarantee for the future.
L’OURS, hors-serie Recherche socialiste 84-85, ‘Les crises de l’Europe (1945-2018)’, juillet-décembre 2018.
Book reviews
“It is a discerning, balanced, gracefully written book, flavoured with the insights of political science but filled with the meat of European Union history over six decades.”
Financial Times, Tony Barber, 18 May 2013
Berlin or bust
“It has much to teach those who want to understand the EU’s recent political dynamic.”
The Economist, 25 May 2013
After the darkest hour
“Philosophically informed and historically sensitive … original, subtle and refreshing”
Times Literary Supplement, Larry Siedentop, 29 November 2013
Between spheres
“An intriguing presentation of views seldom reported so readably and in such depth, offering a fresh new perspective to American readers.”
Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2013
The passage to europe
“Supremely erudite account of Europe’s transformation. (..) [The author’s] encyclopedic knowledge of and intimacy with European affairs will make even a specialist blush with envy.”
Publishers Weekly, 26 August 2013
“Reading this book is to enjoy a synergy both of this history, the politics and the history of ideas that have brought a hugely improbable project to life and sustained it through succeeding crises. This is an academic study that is clearly written and accessible.”
Irish Examiner, Gerard Howlin, 18 May 2013
##We’re still trying to make europe add up:Document:36##
“Luuk van Middelaar has written by far the best, accessible, thoughtful account of Europe as was and is and as he hopes will be that we have seen in years.”
Tribune, Denis MacShane, 31 May 2013
Balkanising Europe is not the answer
“Beautifully written. (..) His aphoristic, provocative but always entertaining analysis is richly garnered with metaphors and illustrative anecdotes that make what could have been a dry read a colourful pleasure.”
Literary Review, Martin Westlake, July 2013
Ever closer
“The book is intellectually rich and politically balanced, its narrative smooth and engaging, its arguments original and sophisticated.”
International Affairs, Jan Zielonka, November 2013
Europe
“A superb, eloquent study; a gripping narrative of personalities and events that reads like a Bildungsroman.”
The Vienna Review, Allan Janik, 18 December 2013
The passage to Europe
“Like all great novels, the Passage to Europe tells us something about our (European) condition.”
LSE Blog, Renaud Thillaye, 23 June 2013
The passage to Europe
“Un travail passionnant et impressionnant. Tel un archéologue, l’auteur fouille dans les discours européens les plus usés, les faits établis et les mentalités bien ancrées à la recherche des stratégies et des rapports de forces politiques. Il bluffait, mais il a tenu parole. Il rédige sa nouvelle version de l’histoire et le résultat est un ouvrage magistral.”
Le Soir, Paul Goossens, 7 December 2012
A la recherche du politique
“C’est ce ton distant mais passionné par ce que l’auteur découvre qui tient le lecteur concentré sur près de 500 pages, dont est proscrit tout jargon universitaire ou bruxellois.”
La Croix, Sébastien Maillard, 12 April 2012
L’Europe politique en gestation
“Une somme de réflexions originales propres à forcer l’impasse agaçante de nos perceptions désillusionnées. (..) L’attitude des gouvernements dans la crise actuelle corrobore l’analyse de van Middelaar: le ‘passage à l’Europe’ a bien eu lieu, mais pas là où on l’attendait.”
Joëlle Kunz, Le Temps, 4 February 2012
Le passage à l’Europe
“Tous les poncifs des manuels reprennent fraîcheur et chair sous la plume alerte et l’humour quasi-voltairien de Luuk van Middelaar, qui transforme en autant de tragi-comédies captivantes les épisodes les plus austères de la construction européenne.”
Christophe de Voogd, Nonfiction.fr
Lumière hollandaise sur l’Europe!
“Il y a des livres devant lesquels, faute de temps, d’espace et surtout de recul, le chroniqueur se trouve réduit à une seule forme de commentaire : l’effet d’annonce. L’évènement est tel que l’essentiel est d’instiguer le public à y aller voir lui-même toutes affaires cessantes, parce qu’on se trouve devant un ouvrage qui provoque un avant et un après sa parution. La même attitude s’est imposée à moi, il y a, plus de vingt ans, lors de la parution du Nom de la Rose.”
Jacques De Decker, Espace-Livres.be, 30 January 2012
Hourrah pour l’Europe
“Le Passage à l’Europe est un ouvrage passionnant. Histoire, philosophie – des auteurs antiques à Tocqueville et Montesquieu en passant par Machiavel – littérature, musique, droit constitutionnel, droit communautaire, sociologie… tous les champs de la connaissance humaine et de la culture sont convoqués dans des tours d’horizons riches et foisonnants.”
La Revue Socialiste, Matthias Fekl, February 2013
Faire comprendre l’Europe
“Für alle, die glauben, über die Geschichte und die Triebkräfte der europäischen Einigung schon alles zu wissen. Originell, historisch wie philosophisch tiefschürfend und mit einem Optimismus, dem man sich nur schwer entziehen kann.”
Thomas Bagger, Internationale Politik, Nov.-Dec. 2015
Pflichtlektüren
“Eine elegant geschriebenen Darstellung, die den üblichen EU-Jargon vermeidet.”
Almut Möller, Internationale Politik, May-June 2014
Europa für Krisengeschädigte
“Das Buch ist all Denjenigen zu empfehlen, die einer breiten, gleichwohl aber analytisch anspruchsvollen Versicherung der europäischen Idee bedürfen.”
J.J. Hesse, Zeitschrift für Staats- und Europawissenschaften, 2013 / n° 3
Kommentierte Buchanzeigen
Luuk van Middelaar ist ein herausragendes Buch gelungen, an dem niemand vorbeikommt, der die Essenz des Europäischen verstehen will.
Thomas Kirchner, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 18 Okt. 2017
Das grosse Ganze jenseits von Brüssel
Luuk van Middelaar bietet keine praktischen Lösungen an. Aber er tut etwas viel Wichtigeres: Er schlägt eine Schneise in den europäischen Gedankenwirrwarr.
Martin Winter, Deutschlandfunk 30 Jan. 2017
Nationale und europäische Interessen in Einklang bringen
Wie steht es um das Verhältnis zwischen dem politischen Europa und der Öffentlichkeit? Ist die Union dafür gerüstet, auf große Erschütterungen zu reagieren? Wer übernimmt in Zeiten der Unsicherheit die Führung? … Ausgehend von diesen Fragen, dringt van Middelaar in seinem erhellenden Streifzug durch die europäische Einigungsgeschichte zu grundlegenden Problemen des heutigen Europa vor.
Thomas Speckmann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 8 März 2017
Vom Krisenkontinent zur Krisenunion
Die Analysen sind lesens- und bedenkenswert … Dem Autor gelingt es vortrefflich, viele scheinbar höchst komplexe Probleme auf einen einfachen Punkt zu bringen.
Jürgen Elvert, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 März 2017
Im Tunnel mag es dunkel sein, Integrationsprozess in Europa.
“Luuk van Middelaar kan niet genoeg geprezen worden voor het schrijven van een boek over Europa dat van a tot z boeit, vrij is van ieder technocratisch jargon en prikkelt tot nadenken over de (on)mogelijkheden van Europese politiek.”
Anet Bleich, de Volkskrant, 29 May 2009
Europa op zoek naar haar publiek
“Een nieuw en overtuigend vergezicht op de sterke en zwakke kanten van het Europese project”
NRC Handelsblad, Ronald Havenaar, 22 May 2009
Dromen van gezamenlijkheid
“El libro que el autor nos ofrece deja prueba agradable pero indeleble de sus lecturas en el ámbito de la cultura clásica y de la filosofía. Unas condiciones que le permiten el análisis lúcido de la situación.”
Miguel Ángel Aguilar, Cinco Días, 29 November 2013
Por Europa y las libertades
“Europa em transição de Luuk van Middelaar é indispensável para entender a história da União Europeia e o impasse entre ela e seus Estados-membros.”
Cláudio Ribeiro, 8 January 2018
Cultura Estadao
“Õigusriik on sama palju Euroopa idee keskmes kui demokraatia, representatsioon ja ühine tahe. Euroopa õigusriigi (ning uusaegse moraali) juured ulatuvad Kantini, kellest peale peab Euroopa end mõõtma universaalse mõõdupuuga, mis ei talu suva ega erandeid. Me võime olla liikmesriigina liiga noor „paksuks” solidaarsuseks, aga kõik me oleme Eesti kodanikena ka Euroopa Liidu kodanikud. Ning juba aastal 1963 sätestas Euroopa Kohus, et „üksikisiku ja Euroopa vahel on otseside” (juhtum van Gend & Loos). Siin on solidaarsus, mida üks ELi kodanik ei saa teisele keelata, ilma et annaks ära ka osa omaenda eurooplusest. Ja see on meie suurim lootus.”
Ahto Lobjakas, Sirp, June 2014
Euroopa solidaarsus
“Å lese Middelaar si bok kunne vere ein passande start for ei norsk nytenking om Europa og EU”
Minerva nett, Henrik Kvadsheim, 5 December 2014
Korleis Europa blei til ein union
Academic reviews
“Its message is particularly suited to the political as well as legal conditions of our time.” In the venerable Common Market Law Review, reviewers Loïc Azoulai and Edwina Jaeger (Florence) describe The Passage as a “compelling” new account of the Union’s history and as “probably the most comprehensive effort to expose the fallacies involved in the classic effort to conceptualise Europe as a supranational phenomenon”. They also underline its wider significance for EU law, as a wake-up call for the field: “The book signals a shift in the foundation of the Union’s power and, subsequently, in the structure of the European legal argument. (…) Responding with classic ‘EU law’ arguments that the current developments lack legal basis and legitimacy is certainly insufficient.” The same issue’s penetrating editorial on ‘Union membership in times of crisis’ develops the point.
Common Market Law Review, 51 (2014), pp. 311-313 (review) and pp. 1-12 (editorial).
The Low Countries Historical Review published a set of three long review essays on De Passage. For Belgian political scientist Steven Van Hecke, the book “succeeds brilliantly” in its ambition to tell another story about the birth of political Europe. Dutch historian André Gerrits enjoys it as “a great read” and “significant contribution to the historiography of European integration”, whereas economic historian Hein Klemann, less enthused, notes it does not say much on Europe’s economic integration. Van Middelaar’s reply – almost a mission statement – sets out the book’s theoretical choices and explains the key importance of its style.
BMGN/LCHR 125/4 (2010), pp. 59-81 (reviews) and pp. 82-89 (reply) (in English)
“Whereas the grey zone between states and Brussels remained a black hole of the analysis, here it becomes the central issue (…), an analysis of the lynch-pin, crucial to an understanding of the edifice.” In a long, perceptive critique in the French review Politique européenne, political scientist Michel Mangenot (Strasbourg) highlights Le Passage’s analysis of a “major and nevertheless ignored question”, the states’ membership of the Union. The sterile opposition between schools of thought (intergovernmentalism vs. functionalism, states vs. institutions etc.) has been deplored before, he notes, but Van Middelaar turns around the perspective by giving a voice to the intermediate sphere. The reviewer predicts that Le Passage – “a great book on Europe”, “going against the grain of the academic literature since twenty years” – will inspire many studies to offer a more embodied view of EU politics.
Politique européenne, n° 38, 2012/3, pp. 210-216 (in French).
“Few authors launch themselves solitarily into such an ambitious enterprise, no doubt for fear of breaking with today’s academic dogma of hyper-specialisation, but also because of the difficult exercise the object of study requires: a history of the present.” Thus French political scientist Julien Barroche (Inalco, Sciences-Po Paris) in Raisons politiques. He applauds Le Passage as the “work of synthesis that’s cruelly missed on Europe” – a topic fragmented between studies of law, political science, economy, history and philosophy. Barroche sets out the originality of the book’s overall interpretative frame, focusing on its analysis of the 1965 empty-chair crisis and the 1985 Milan summit.
Raisons politiques, n° 47, 2012/3, pp. 203-207 (in French)
“Praising its courage is the best way to appreciate this book, which blows up all genres, too reckless for the expert, too erudite for the student, no longer political science, not yet political programme. (..) On the small shelve of literary EU-literature, it may well claim the place of honour.” In a long review for H-Soz-Kult, the German website for academic historians, Jacob Krumrey (Florence) is intrigued by the fact The Passage firmly rejects a teleological approach to its subject and yet keeps a sense of direction; he sees the key in the book’s awareness of the power of discourse – “Ein Treitschke also, der Foucault im Munde führt!”
H-Soz-Kult, 8 Sept. 2014 (in German)
“In the leading German journal for public law, reviewer prof.dr. Frank Schorfkopf (Göttingen) recommends the German 2016 edition Vom Kontinent zur Union as an excellent book to a wide readership of national and European lawyers: “It shows in an exemplary manner how European law can also be understood, from its historical context, with a great sensitivity for political mechanics and symbolism, and always aware that decisions may reflect conflicting positions and experiences.” For the review, the book not only offers a history of European integration but also “offers a political philosophy of the European Union and contains the principles of a new understanding of European constitutional law.”
Archiv des Öffentlichen Rechts, March 2017, pp. 479-482 (in German)
In the Dutch academic legal review SEW – Tijdschrift voor Europees en economisch recht, legal scholar Ton van den Brink appreciates the strong signals De passage sends “against a passive, cynical or even fatalistic” attitude towards European cooperation. He welcomes the book’s analysis of the ‘intermediate sphere’, including its legal and constitutional implications, but wished the author had articulated it more closely to the Union’s institutional ‘inner’ structure.
SEW, 2011/4 (April), pp.199-201 (in Dutch)
“Perhaps the best analysts of politics have one foot inside the political game and one foot outside. Machiavelli was somebody like that, and so is Van Middelaar.” In the Dutch review for legal philosophy Rechtsfilosofie en rechtstheorie, political philosopher Bertjan Wolthuis explains why De passage naar Europa is a rare, good book on politics in the tradition of the 16th c. Florentine political thinker. He appreciates how the author gives European politics a space for political action in the relations between member states and by zooming in on a single encounter, summit or series of moves. “As playwright of the political theater Van Middelaar is brilliant”, the reviewer says, to regret the book consists not entirely of these dramatic moments.
Rechtsfilosofie & Rechtstheorie, 2010 (39) 2, pp.188-191 (in Dutch)
Book reviews
“Virtuoos”
Ger Groot, NRC Handelsblad 19 Nov. 1999.
Verdwaald in de achterdocht
“Een bijzonder knap en prikkelend boek”
Rob Hartmans, De Groene Amsterdammer 24 Nov. 1999.
De erfenis van Kojève
“Een clever boek, met een verrassende kijk op het Franse engagement van de afgelopen vijftig jaar”
Carel Peeters, Vrij Nederland 4 Dec. 1999.
Van politicide naar politicitis
“Het boek is meeslepend geschreven, de greep op de stof is fenomenaal, de anekdotes zijn verhelderend en de goed gekozen one-liners vatten de wijsgerige posities meestal treffend samen.”
Hans Achterhuis, de Volkskrant 18 Feb. 2000.
Franse filosofen in de beklaagdenbank
“Acaba de sair no Brasil um livro que explica bem, no plano da filosofia política, por que a Europa, em grande parte, não tem recursos teóricos que ajudem seus políticos professionais a enfrantar a Europa real.”
Luiz Felipe Pondé, Folha de S. Paulo 18 Jan. 2016
Maoismo sabor camembert
Academic reviews
“Bij de verbluffende hoeveelheid materiaal die van Middelaar heeft verzameld is het bewonderenswaardig dat hij er zulke eenduidige en ook overtuigende lijnen in heeft weten aan te brengen. Mijn aarzeling geldt echter precies deze eenduidigheid en neiging tot schematiseren.”
Yolande Jansen, De vergrotende trap, Krisis 1 (2000) n° 3, pp. 90-96.