The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy

The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of Am...

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Editorial Reviews

To Americans accustomed to unilateralism abroad and social belt-tightening at home, few books could be more revelatory—or controversial—than this timely, lucid, and informative portrait of the new European Union.

Now comprising 25 nations and 450 million citizens, the EU has more people, more wealth, and more votes on every international body than the United States. It eschews military force but offers guaranteed health care and free university educations. And the new "United States of Europe" is determined to be a superpower. Tracing the EU’s emergence from the ruins of World War II and its influence everywhere from international courts to supermarket shelves, T. R. Reid explores the challenge it poses to American political and economic supremacy. The United States of Europe is essential reading.

While the United States flexes its economic and military muscles around the world as the dominant global player, it may soon have company. According to the Washington Post's T.R. Reid, the nations of Europe are setting aside differences to form an entity that's gaining strength, all seemingly unbeknownst to the U.S. and its citizens. The new Europe, Reid says, "has more people, more wealth, and more trade than the United States of America," plus more leverage gained through membership in international organizations and generous foreign aid policies that reap political clout. Reid tells how European countries were willing to discontinue their individual centuries-old currencies and adopt the Euro, the monetary unit that is now a dominant force in world markets. This is noteworthy not just for exploring the considerable economic impact of the Euro, but also for what that spirit of cooperation means for every facet of Europe in the 21st century, where governments and citizens alike believe that the rewards of banding together are worth a loss in sovereignty. Reid's most compelling portrait of this trend is in the young Europeans known as "Generation E" who see themselves not as Spaniards or Czechs but simply as Europeans. To illustrate America's obliviousness to this trend, Reid tells of former GE CEO Jack Welch, who never bothered to factor European objections into a proposed multi-billion dollar merger with Honeywell, leading to the deal being torpedoed and Welch disgraced. But what is most striking in The United States of Europe is the contrast between the new Europe and the United States. The Europeans cannot match the raw military size of the U.S., but by mixing wealth with diplomacy and continental unity (helped along by antipathy toward George W. Bush's brand of Americanism), they are forming an innovative and powerful superpower. --John Moe

Customer Reviews

Revealing of Dangerous Developments U.S. Media Ignore

Reviewed by Rainer Remagen, 2009-06-12

This book is a surprising, revealing overview of the Frankenstein monster that a United Europe is becoming. The author covers a wide range of material in detail from research he has done in Europe and from living there.
The media in the U.S. focus on the Obsession of the Week while the culture and politics of Europe develop and become more powerful and independent of North America. The relationship between the two is becoming less benign as the months pass.
The captains and CEOs of casino capitalism in the North America, mostly the U.S. along with Great Britain across the sea, are making big mistakes in strategy and tactics, compromising so businesses can take part in the market of Europe which is now the biggest in the world.
Read this book to get an overview and lots of details about how the European Union is developing into the next Superpower, the U.S. and Britain are overconfident and already losing in legal battles and trade conflict with this growing overseas power, and become aware and alert while the U.S. media misses a part of the big picture (by their choice; they do not care).
This is not a novel or fiction; read this book and you will not be shocked when the European Union is less benign in the future to the U.S. and Britain and has the power to defy North America. You will have seen the cumulative mistakes being made by Washington and Downing Street as laid out in this book and know that an unpleasant relationship and world scene did not happen overnight.

Europe means excellent

Reviewed by Dalton C. Rocha, 2009-05-01

I read this excellent book, here in Brazil.Reading this book, I remembered a brazilian joke, told by grand-mother, Maria Leite Rocha (1911-2001), many years ago; when I was a child.Translating to the English, the joke is something like this:

A man was a creator of Thoroughbreds.When a colt was born, the man decided to give its name: "Bad news".
Someone made a question to the Thoroughbred's creator:
_Why to put "Bad News" as a name for a Thoroughbred?
_Well, because nothing runs, more fast than "Bad News"!

Remembering this joke, I must tell you this book has thousands of good news about Europe.Some examples:
1-Taxes are terrible in Europe?Yes, but europeans got good and free health, from these taxes.See pages 5 and 159.
2-There's no death penalty in Europe?Yes, but Europe has less level of criminality, than USA.See pages 15 and 168.
3-European military power is weaker than American?Yes, but europeans are building infra-structure and unity with their money.See pages 180 and 181.
4-Christianity hasn't almost no place in Europe today;protestant historical churches are empty?Yes, but secularism isn't problem, but a solution in Europe.See pages 215,216 and 217.
5-There's many anti-americanists in Europe?Yes, but european anti-americanism is far weaker than anti-americanism in Latin America ,Asia or Islamic World.See pages 24 and 169.

Well, I read the hard cover ediction of this excellent book.
The main lesson of this book is:Europe means excellent.

Compare and Contrast

Reviewed by T. Deangelis, 2009-01-05

I read 2 books "The United States of Europe" and "The Last Days of Europe".

The United States of Europe is well written and concise. The history of European politics, in regards to European unity is extremely well done. The implications for the common currency is that the whole continent will reduce transaction costs, and in theory invest that money back into Europe's economy. The same applies to elimination of tariffs as goods and services cross borders. By uniting Europe becomes the largest economy, and market. Weaker currencies exchange their currency for a stronger more desirable currency, the Euro. After putting these puzzle pieces together Europe seems more Super Power like, with a voice certainly equal to the U.S.
The author's argument is powerful.

In the "last Days of Europe" I found a much darker book. The book seemed to hing its argument on the sole issue of immigration into Europe, and the fact of declining European birthrates. He argues that immigrants are Muslim, and appear to make no effort to adapt the ways of their host nation, but that could be said of America. The other part of his argument is that Europe can't maintain its social services, which he does not present very many facts to prove that point.I am sure this connected to economic growth. The author does predict Europe will be over run by Muslim immigrants, and the countries we know now may cease to exist, but that would be nothing new to Europe. The map appears to be rewritten there fairly often there anyway. In the end I found this book to be simple.

Both books are worth reading, but you have to do your own thinking.

Both books could be viable futures for Europe, but most likely the books will both compromise. The world will continue to change and if history is any indicator, change is the norm.

I changed some of these comments, but it was mostly word choice changes. 15 Jan 2010.

Great Service.

Reviewed by G. Smith, 2008-09-05

The book I received was in better condition than the report said. It was sent in a timely manner.

Well-written, but factually wrong...

Reviewed by Claes Hansen, 2008-08-05

T. R. Reid's 'The United States of Europe' is a surprisingly entertaining read, considering it deals with something as boring as the European Union. Unfortunately, in my reading of it, I found so many factual errors and over-generalizations that I cannot recommend it as an introduction to the EU. That's ironic, since it's clearly meant as an introduction.

Let me give a few examples:
"The citizens of the EU use a standard license plate, birth certificate and passport (although each country still gets to pick its preferred passport color: a red cover for Britain, dark blue for Poland and of course green for Ireland)." There is an EU license plate, but not every country has implemented them. As far as I know there is no EU birth certificate (it's certainly not implemented in most countries) and all new EU passports have burgundy colored covers.

"The Swedish referendum on the euro had a tragic outcome: the nation's foreign minister, Anna Lindh, campaigning hard for the pro-euro side, was approached a few days before the election by a disheveled man with a dagger in hand. He stabbed her repeatedly, and she died a few hours later. Police later arrested a suspect, but were never able to determine the exact relationship between the euro campaign and this lethal assault." That's because there was no link between the murder and the campaign. The murderer was a mentally disturbed man who is now serving a life sentence in a Swedish prison.

"Since every major European airport has a big train station in the basement of the terminal, Euro-travelers can jump off the plane and straight onto the TGV train to complete the journey." Since TGV trains mainly operate in France (with 1 line going to London, 1 to Germany and 1 going through Belgium, Netherlands and into Germany) riding the TGV from an airport cannot be said to be a general option for most Euro-travelers.

"You can get a 'Danish' in Denmark, but no Dane ever calls it a Danish pastry. In fact no Europeans use that term, except for TV-comedians making fun of Americans. In Denmark, and in most of Europe, that breakfast pastry is generally called Wienerbrod, or 'Vienna bread.'" In Britain and Ireland it's called a Danish, in Germany and Austria it's called a 'Kopenhagener'. That's a big chunk of the EU.

Reid several times writes about both Switzerland and Norway as if they're EU-member states, even though they're not, and he tries to give the impression that all of Europe celebrates May 9th ('Europe Day') like another Fourth of July, even though all Europeans I know are completely unaware the day is even celebrated!

Factual errors and overgeneralizations like these mar the book throughout and give readers a wrong impression of how things really are in Europe. That's a shame, since Reid clearly has a talent for writing about the EU in an entertaining way.