WOLFRAM KAISER is Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Vienna. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen, Germany and a Lecturer at Edinburgh University. Dr Kaiser has published widely on the history of European integration and on postwar British history.

'An outstanding book about the wars before the beef war - a compelling analysis written from a most valuable multilateral perspective of Britain's loss of the political leadership of Western Europe and her vain struggle to regain it. Compulsory reading for anybody interested in the history and future of the European Union.' - Professor Werner Abelshauser, University of Bielefeld, Germany

• Preface to the 1999 Reprint General Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Building and Defending a British Europe, 1945-55 What Bus? The Messina Conference, 1955 Best of all Worlds: The Free Trade Area Plan, 1956-7 Makeshift Solution: From FTA to EFTA, 1958-9 Dual Appeasement: Towards the EEC Application, 1960-1; From Laggard to Leader?; The Bomb and Europe Failure, yet Success: the EEC Entry Negotiations, 1961-3 Epilogue: Britain and European Integration, 1963-96 Notes Bibliography Index

WOLFRAM KAISER is Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Vienna. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen, Germany and a Lecturer at Edinburgh University. Dr Kaiser has published widely on the history of European integration and on postwar British history.

'An outstanding book about the wars before the beef war - a compelling analysis written from a most valuable multilateral perspective of Britain's loss of the political leadership of Western Europe and her vain struggle to regain it. Compulsory reading for anybody interested in the history and future of the European Union.' - Professor Werner Abelshauser, University of Bielefeld, Germany

• Preface to the 1999 Reprint General Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Building and Defending a British Europe, 1945-55 What Bus? The Messina Conference, 1955 Best of all Worlds: The Free Trade Area Plan, 1956-7 Makeshift Solution: From FTA to EFTA, 1958-9 Dual Appeasement: Towards the EEC Application, 1960-1; From Laggard to Leader?; The Bomb and Europe Failure, yet Success: the EEC Entry Negotiations, 1961-3 Epilogue: Britain and European Integration, 1963-96 Notes Bibliography Index

WOLFRAM KAISER is Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Vienna. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen, Germany and a Lecturer at Edinburgh University. Dr Kaiser has published widely on the history of European integration and on postwar British history.

'An outstanding book about the wars before the beef war - a compelling analysis written from a most valuable multilateral perspective of Britain's loss of the political leadership of Western Europe and her vain struggle to regain it. Compulsory reading for anybody interested in the history and future of the European Union.' - Professor Werner Abelshauser, University of Bielefeld, Germany

• Preface to the 1999 Reprint General Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Building and Defending a British Europe, 1945-55 What Bus? The Messina Conference, 1955 Best of all Worlds: The Free Trade Area Plan, 1956-7 Makeshift Solution: From FTA to EFTA, 1958-9 Dual Appeasement: Towards the EEC Application, 1960-1; From Laggard to Leader?; The Bomb and Europe Failure, yet Success: the EEC Entry Negotiations, 1961-3 Epilogue: Britain and European Integration, 1963-96 Notes Bibliography Index