This is the first book I've ever recommended to my most thinking international friends, businessmen and normal citizens alike. It works on three levels: provides the underlying rationale for what has occurred in the last century in Europe; makes an incredible case for the repetition of the same history from some of the same causes as we watch the EC begin to unravel even as I write this. And last, the case provides a new lens from which to look at other groups of countries...is the past the predictor of the future?