none 10.1017/9789048563784 Cambridge University Press (CUP) Cambridge University Press 56 168937458 4790667 2024121700052964956 10.1017 2024-12-16T19:06:06Z 2024-12-16T19:06:03Z 0 Joshua Livestro Federal Union in Political Theory and Practice, 1500-1951 This book tells the history of the 'federal union', a concept that may be traced from the early Renaissance to the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) - the predecessor of today's European Union. It is a story of three federal canons: of greater and lesser thinkers, of utopian peace plans, and of practical experiences with federal unions. Together they shaped the concepts that created the ECSC.<br><br>This book unlocks the past of the EU - a union that always thought it didn't have a past, but was, on the contrary, 'sui generis', without examples or predecessors. Although there was nothing inevitable about the founding of the EU, <i>A More Perfect Union</i> shows that it was plausible and perhaps even predictable that such a union would be formed at some point - and that the aftermath of the Second World War was exactly the kind of founding moment about which federal theorists in previous centuries had speculated. 1 12 17 2024 05 30 2024 9789048563784 Amsterdam University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Co-Access 10.1353/book.124822 Co-Access 10.1515/9789048563784 Co-Access 10.2307/jj.15213775 Co-Access 10.5117/9789048563777 10.1017/9789048563784 https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9789048563784/type/book