- Published: 24 January 2019
- ISBN: 9780241398333
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 320
A Short History of Brexit
From Brentry to Backstop
- Published: 24 January 2019
- ISBN: 9780241398333
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 320
Valuable on the backstory is Kevin O'Rourke's A Short History of Brexit (Pelican). As an Irish historian who divides his time between a French village and All Souls College, Oxford, O'Rourke is a quintessential Remainer; but he's not blind to the EU's supranational ambitions.
Political Books of the Year, Prospect
He recounts the history of British involvement with Europe over the last 60 years with unique concision and clarity. He searches for the motivations behind the Brexit vote, parsing arguments that it was the inevitable result of structural economic factors, that it stemmed from a misplaced backlash against rising inequality, or that it was just a fluke brought about by political miscalculation and opportunism. Ever the professor, O'Rourke hints that all these views contain some truth.
Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs