Bookstack Episode 115: Timothy Garton Ash on What It Means to Be European
Sep 13, 2023
Timothy Garton-Ash, Oxford professor and historian of European studies, reflects on Europe as a lived identity and his new personal history. He discusses the spread of freedom since 1945, the causes of 1989, Brexit’s costs, NATO enlargement and Russian grievances, and risks from rising nationalist populism. Multiple short, lively reflections on history, politics, and what it means to feel at home across Europe.
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Europe And Freedom As Leitmotifs
- Timothy Garton Ash frames his book as the history of Europe seen through the twin themes of Europe and freedom.
- He shows how Europe moved from many dictatorships in the 1970s to an unprecedented spread of liberal democracy and integration by the 2000s.
Returning To Father's Normandy Village
- Garton Ash revisits the Normandy village where his father's unit occupied and finds the multi-layered aftermath of war.
- He uses personal family history to illustrate how Europe was a 'hell' in 1945 with refugees, Nazis, and nearby Bergen-Belsen.
Berlin's Lived Division Shaped Perspective
- Living in both West and East Berlin made the Cold War's division a formative lived experience for Garton Ash.
- He emphasizes dissidents and Solidarity figures as central actors in Eastern Europe's eventual emancipation.
