A uniquely comprehensive and genuinely interdisciplinary introduction to the history and political development of the European community, the institutions and key policies of the European Union and the main challenges they face today. Acknowledgements, Introduction, History, Reconstruction and Reconciliation and Integration - 1945-1957, Constructing the Community: The Gaullist Challenge - 1958-1969, A Community in Flux - 1969-1979, Turning the Corner - 1979-1984, The Transformation of the European Community - 1985-1988, A New Europe and a New Community? 1989-1993, Institutions, The European Commission, The European Council and the Council of Ministers, The European Parliament, The Court of Justice and Other Institutions and Bodies, Policies and Programs, The Common Agricultural Policy, The Single Market Program, A Level Playing Field, Beyond the Marketplace, Economic and Monetary Union, External Economic Relations, The European Community in the Post-Cold War World, Bibliography, Index.