Common Market: The Great Decision

The dream of a United States of Europe has captivated statesmen from Charlemagne to Churchill. But for Britain, still dreaming of the days when it was the greatest power on earth, togetherness with the Continent has always seemed a kind of national capitulation, and it has remained proudly aloof across the 20 miles of Channel water separating it from Europe. The more Britain's relative power in world affairs ebbed, the more Britain seemed afraid that her own prideful identity might be lost in a vast new European nation. Stretching from the Atlantic to the Iron Curtain, from the Arctic...