Unsettling of Europe

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

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

PeterGatrell's powerful new book is the first to bring these stories togetherinto one place. He creates a compelling narrative bracketed by twonightmarish periods: the great convulsions following the fall of theThird Reich and the mass attempts in the 2010s by migrants to cross theMediterranean into Europe.

The Unsettling of Europe is anew history of the continent, charting the ever-changing argumentsabout the desirability or otherwise of migrants and their central rolein Europe's post-1945 prosperity. Gatrell is as fascinating on the giantmovements of millions (such as the epic waves of German migration) tothat of much smaller groups, such as the Karelians, Armenians, Moluccansor Ugandan Asians. Above all he has written a book that makes thereader deeply aware of the many extraordinary journeys taken bycountless individuals in pursuit of work, safety and dignity, all thetime.

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

'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

Reviews

With migration often characterized as a new and threatening 'crisis' in Europe, acclaimed historian Peter Gatrell recasts the history of postwar Europe as a history of migration ... This timely and must-read book offers valuable lessons from the past as well as new ways to understand just what is at stake in the debate over immigration today.