Steven Hill

On his book Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age

Cover Interview of March 30, 2010

In a nutshell

While Europe is considered the “old world,” it is the United States that is actually far older. The European Union in its current configuration of 27 member states and 500 million people dates back only to 2004.

My book is about a “Europe” fundamentally different from its previous incarnations, reconstructed from the rubble of World War II with America’s generous assistance. It is the story of how post-World War II Europe has transformed itself from the military warring machines its nations had been for centuries, into a model for how a modern society can develop itself, take care of its people, foster “peace and prosperity partnerships” with its neighbors and region, and do all that in a way that is as environmentally sustainable as possible. For a decade I traveled widely across the continent to understand this uniquely European Way that, I concluded, has taken the lead in this make-or-break century challenged by a worldwide economic crisis, global climate change and new geopolitical tensions.

Yet these changes mostly have taken place under the radar, misreported by the media and misunderstood by the American public and its leaders. Because modern-day Europe is so new and still in formation, journalists can’t figure out if Europe is a single nation or a confederacy of individual nations. Increasingly the answer is “both,” confusing many reporters who don’t quite know how to report on Europe because of this duality. As a result, numerous myths and half-truths about Europe now pass as conventional wisdom, and these myths have clouded Americans’ perceptions and understanding.

Thus, in Europe’s Promise I undertook the task of chronicling and illuminating for readers Europe’s quiet revolution that is proposing a bold new vision for human development at a crucial juncture in global affairs. A world power has emerged across the Atlantic that is recrafting the rules for how a modern society should provide economic security, environmental sustainability and global stability for its many peoples. History is in the making, and those paying attention have ringside seats.

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[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.

Carolyn J. Dean,
Interview of February 01, 2011

The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.

Jerome Kagan,
Interview of September 17, 2009