Edward Knudsen

Despite the European Union’s best efforts at forging greater economic, cultural, and political unity among member states, Europe’s “usable past” in economic history remains a patchwork of national stories, rather than a unified narrative. This fragmentation limits the cohesiveness of Europe’s economic policies, trapping it amid a variety of competing goals, philosophies, and visions of the continent’s place in the future geoeconomic order. Given rising international tensions and external challenges ranging from sanctions and tariffs to aggressive industrial policies, this poses a significant risk to Europe’s stability and prosperity. Forging a shared European conception of the past will therefore be essential for developing a common economic purpose. In this spirit, this project seeks to understand how past episodes of national economic history have become “Europeanized,” as well as to explore the prospects of developing a lasting pan-European (economic) historical consciousness that can grant unity to Europe, in order to withstand coercion from abroad and forge greater solidarity at home.