The book Materializing Europe: Toward a Transnational History of European Infrastructures edited by Alec Badenoch and Andreas Fickers will be published on 29 October 2010. Both are fellows of the 2010 Theme Group “Inventing Europe. A Transnational History of European Integration”. Johan Schot, coordinator of the Theme Group, also contributed to this volume.
About the book: Transnational infrastructures have long been an integral part of projects to unite Europe. This book aims to analyse the complex histories of network technologies in their material, institutional and symbolic performances. Taking material networks as the focal point of study allows the authors to tell a truly transnational history, fruitfully broadening our perspectives on a number of historical narratives. It expands the time frame for exploring European integration by pointing to the longer processes of international connection and cooperation. These broadened spatial and temporal horizons allow for decentralising the processes of formal integration surrounding the EU after WWII to reveal a broader range of actors and forces in European history.