Review Essay: John Erik Fossum and Philip Schlesinger (eds), The European Union and the Public Sphere: A Communicative Space in the Making? London: Routledge, 2007. 312pp. (incl. index), £70.00, US$125.00, ISBN 978 04153 8456 8 (hbk):

TLDR: The history of post-war Europe, the EU and the European generation is in many ways a success story, compared with the past bloody and national history of a strongly divided Europe as mentioned in this paper.

Abstract: It is an impressive group of authors from many disciplines and countries that Fossum and Schlesinger have brought together is this very timely book with theories, models and analysis of the many aspects of Europeanization and communication inside Europe and the European Union (EU). The history of post-war Europe, the EU and the European generation is in many ways a success story, compared with the past bloody and national history of a strongly divided Europe. However, the development right now, as the editors also reflect upon in the introduction, seems to be at a crossroad where the expansion of the EU demands new structures and procedures, but where at the same time the public support for a grander and more ambitious vision of a unified and expanded European democracy does not seem to produce popular support on a national level.