International Archives

Project Europe: A History

Today it often appears as though the European Union has entered existential crisis after decades of success, condemned by its adversaries as a bureaucratic monster eroding national sovereignty: at best wasteful, at worst dangerous. How did we reach this point and how has European integration impacted on ordinary people’s lives – not just in the member states, but also beyond? Did the predecessors of today’s EU really create peace after World War II, as is often argued? How about its contribution to creating prosperity? […Learn More]

The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World

For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis. Between sluggish growth; political turmoil following a decade of austerity politics; Brexit; and the rise of Asian influence, the EU is seen as a declining power on the world stage.

Columbia Law professor Anu Bradford argues the opposite in her important new book The Brussels Effect: the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image. […Learn More]

Soviet Judgement at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II

Organized in the immediate aftermath of World War Two by the victorious Allies, the Nuremberg Trials were intended to hold the Nazis to account for their crimes and to restore a sense of justice to a world devastated by violence. As Francine Hirsch reveals in this immersive, gripping, and ground-breaking book, a major piece of the Nuremberg story has routinely been omitted from standard accounts: the part the Soviet Union played in making the trials happen in the first place. […Learn More]

Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice

From the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. to the “stumbling stones” embedded in Berlin sidewalks, memorials to victims of Nazi violence have proliferated across the globe. More than a million visitors as many as killed there during its operation now visit Auschwitz each year. There is no shortage of commemoration of Nazi crimes. But has there been justice? Reckonings shows persuasively that there has not. The name “Auschwitz,” for example, is often evoked to encapsulate the Holocaust. […Learn More]