If you have not put much thought into what binds together the transatlantic relationship between Europe and America, this is a good place to start. Hanhimaki points out that the relationship is grounded in Nato, and it can be expected to endure. It is also rooted in shared culture and political trends insofar as both regions tend to swing between liberal and conservative governments, while being bound to an unwavering center, in much the same way.
Unfortunately, in making his argument, he goes too fat in dismissing the threat to democracy posed by rightwing nationalists and fascists like Trump. It in not the grand narrative of Francis Fuluyama’s End of History thesis, but it is equally complacent. Hanhimaki also fails to take the threats posed by inequality seriously, eliding rightwing populism and leftwing populism in the same dopey way that became customary when Trump first took office.
In spite of the importance of the relationship he adumbrates, it is this unwillingness to get his hands dirty with advocacy in a contingent world, that ultimately makes this book worth reading only to a select few.