Integration is the most significant European historical development in the past fifty years, eclipsing in importance even the collapse of the USSR. Yet, until now, no satisfactory explanation is to be found in any single book as to why integration is significant, how it originated, how it has changed Europe, and where it is headed. Professor Gillinghams work corrects the inadequacies of the existing literature by cutting through the genuine confusion that surrounds the activities of the European Union, and by looking at his subject from a truly historical perspective. The late-twentieth century has been an era of great, though insufficiently appreciated, accomplishment that intellectually and morally is still emerging from the shadow of an earlier one of depression, and modern despotism. This is a work, then, that captures the historical distinctiveness of Europe in a way that transcends current party political debate.
Único entre los reyes de Inglaterra, Ricardo Corazón de Leónjugó un papel decisivo en los grandes acontecimientos de lahistoria mundial. Ningún otro monarca se enfrentó a undesafío remotamente comparable al de la Tercera Cruzada, y durantesiglos se le considero uno de los mas grandes reyes. Historiadoresposteriores, sin embargo, han criticado su abandono de los asuntosrelativos al gobierno de sus reinos, encasillandolo como malgobernante y mal esposo. En este autorizado estudio, JohnGillingham examina minuciosamente las razones por las que lareputacion de Ricardo Corazon de Leon ha oscilado, al tiempo queaporta una explicacion nueva y convincente sobre su reinado. En estatraduccion se ha actualizado la bibliografia y se han revisado eintroducido nuevos datos y documentos.John Gillingham ha sido profesor de Historia Medieval en la LondonSchool of Economics y su autoridad en el reinado de RicardoCorazon de Leon esta mundialmente reconocida.