The unsettling of Europe - Peter Gatrell

WINNER OF THE LAURA SHANNON PRIZE 2021 AND ITALY'S CHERASCO HISTORY PRIZE 2021

SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE 2020

A TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019

'Peter Gatrell has produced a tour de force ... This important and timely work on one of the most challenging issues in modern Europe deserves to be widely read' Ian Kershaw

Migrants
have stood at the heart of modern Europe's experience, whether trying to escape danger, to find a better life or as a result of
deliberate policy, whether moving from the countryside to the city, or
between countries, or from outside the continent altogether.

Peter
Gatrell's powerful new book is the first to bring these stories together
into one place. He creates a compelling narrative bracketed by two
nightmarish periods: the great convulsions following the fall of the
Third Reich and the mass attempts in the 2010s by migrants to cross the
Mediterranean into Europe.

The Unsettling of Europe is a
new history of the continent, charting the ever-changing arguments
about the desirability or otherwise of migrants and their central role
in Europe's post-1945 prosperity. Gatrell is as fascinating on the giant
movements of millions (such as the epic waves of German migration) to
that of much smaller groups, such as the Karelians, Armenians, Moluccans
or Ugandan Asians. Above all he has written a book that makes the
reader deeply aware of the many extraordinary journeys taken by
countless individuals in pursuit of work, safety and dignity, all the
time.


This is a landmark book on a subject that, decade by decade, will always haunt Europe.