Europe as a ‘greater Holland’. European integration and Dutch politics in the 1950s and 1960s
European Identity and Cultures lecture series
Robin de Bruin challenges popular interpretations of the course of Dutch domestic politics in the early days of European integration, building on his recently published monograph ‘The Elastic European Ideal. European integration and Dutch politics, 1947-1968’ (in Dutch). Meindert Fennema and Virginie Mamadouh form the panel of discussants.
In the first decades after World War II, many Dutch politicians with varying ideologies seemed to share a great enthusiasm about supranational integration in Western Europe, valuing the European project as an adequate response to the economic and political crises of the 1930s and 1940s. Today, many historians of Dutch politics regard this former political enthusiasm for a supranational Europe as somewhat misleading propaganda. They devalue the role of ideas and ideals and attribute a major role to ‘national interests’ in the process of integration.
Robin de Bruin challenges these dominant ‘realist’ and ‘neo-realist’ views in Dutch historiography, and will present his take on the early days of European integration, building on his recently published monograph ‘The Elastic European Ideal. European integration and Dutch politics, 1947-1968’ (in Dutch). According to De Bruin, many Dutch politicians of the 1950s and 1960s seemed to think of European integration as not only a necessity but also a historical inevitability. European integration was presented by Dutch politicians both as a part of, and an adequate administrative response to, a process of growing global interconnectedness. In spite of this shared ‘inevitability paradigm’, the motivation behind the enthusiasm of different political parties varied widely. Most Dutch political parties regarded European integration more or less as a means for achieving their respective ideological aims. Jerôme Heldring, a renowned Dutch journalist, wrote in striking terms of the ‘elastic’ European ideal.
Moreover, the enthusiasm was driven by self-images of postwar Dutch compromise politics that, according to Dutch politicians, served as an example for a future 'truly democratic Europe’. In the longer term, the expectations of a future 'Europe' reinforced and accelerated a process of ideological restraint in Dutch domestic politics.
Panel of discussants
In this edition of the EIC Lecture Series, De Bruin will explain his position to a panel of discussants, consisting of Meindert Fennema and Virginie Mamadouh.
About the speaker
Robin de Bruin is lecturer in Modern European History at the European Studies Department of the University of Amsterdam. He published on the issue of European integration in Dutch politics as well as on the Dutch civil service under Nazi rule. Currently, he is starting a new research project about European technocrats in the interwar years.
Location and registration
The lecture takes place in the Vondelzaal of the University Library, Singel 425.