Book Review: David Baker and Pauline Schnapper, Britain and the Crisis of the European Union
| Author | Scott Lavery |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916666764 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsBritain and Ireland |
Book Reviews 137
collection on rights, which examines the dis-
ruptive impact that digital technologies have
had on social and political hierarchies. This
contains essays on the media, political empow-
erment, the Arab Spring and lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender or queer/questioning
(LBGTQ) activism, all of which are immedi-
ately relevant to a politics academic. It would
be a shame, however, if one bypassed the rest
of the volume, as there is much of interest
throughout that might otherwise be missed.
Panayiota Tsatsou’s essay (pp. 52–63) on digi-
tal inclusion, for example, which calls for
more qualitative micro-level research on
minority groups’ non-use of the Internet to
progress digital empowerment, is much
needed. Likewise, David Gauntlett’s piece
(pp. 77–90) is a staunch defence of amateur
Internet content makers against the charge that
their contributions lead to a cult of amateur-
ism, showing rather how Web 2.0 reflects ‘a
newly empowered grassroots of everyday peo-
ple with creative ideas and aspirations who are
shifting our expectations about where valuable
ideas, entertainment and learning can come
from’ (p. 87).
While this book does not (indeed it could
not) develop an overarching argument, it does
provide us with a useful set of case studies on
the impact of the digital world on hierarchies in
a way that makes them all accessible to readers
with no specialism in technology.
Peter Woodcock
(University of Huddersfield)6
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916674593
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Britain and Ireland
Britain and the Crisis of the European Union
by David Baker and Pauline Schnapper.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 234pp.,
£68.00 (h/b), ISBN 9781137005199
David Baker and Pauline Schnapper begin this
important book by noting that there is a deep
irony at the heart of the contemporary relation-
ship between Britain and the European Union
(EU). The irony is that the ‘rift’ between Britain
and Europe has intensified at precisely the
moment at which the EU has moved more
closely in line with the traditional preferences of
British policymakers. Specifically, in the after-
math of the Eurozone crisis, the EU has become
more intergovernmental and has also consoli-
dated its market liberal orientation (p. 1).
The book seeks to explain why – in spite of
this re-orientation – the ‘awkward relationship’
between Britain and Europe persists and indeed
has deepened over recent years. It does this
through examining two interrelated socio-
economic crises within the UK and in the EU
(p. 4). To this end, the book provides a useful
chronology of the Eurozone crisis (pp. 17–41)
before tracing the historical development
of Euroscepticism in Britain throughout the
post-war period (pp. 42–112). The authors then
trace a series of interconnected developments
– including the rise of ‘populist’ parties, the ail-
ing legitimacy of established political institu-
tions and the disruptive effects of globalisation
– and do a good job of demonstrating the way
in which these processes conditioned Britain’s
relationship with the EU.
One particularly original contribution of the
book is to note the way in which the protracted
economic problems in the Eurozone have
empowered Eurosceptic voices in Britain. For
example, the crisis has added to the fears of
those who see the EU as a project dominated
by Germany, while high levels of EU migra-
tion into Britain since 2008 have further stoked
fears associated with the free movement of
labour (p. 136).
However, their attentiveness to contempo-
rary developments does not detract from
the authors’ concern with more long-standing
historical considerations. In particular, they
deploy convincingly a ‘new political economy’
approach in order to argue that one of the
enduring causes of Britain’s difficult relation-
ship with the EU is its commitment to a dis-
tinctly ‘Anglo-American’ political sphere and
model of political economy (p. 138).
As the authors note in the conclusion, the
book attempts to trace the interactions of three
geo-political spheres: Britain, the EU and the
international order. At times, this leads to a
disorienting narrative and structure as the text
moves between different ‘levels’ of the con-
temporary global crisis. That said, the book
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