Patrie: Una storia personale dell'Europa

Presentation of the book “Patrie: Una storia personale dell'Europa”, by Timothy Garton Ash

A great historian of contemporary times, Timothy Garton Ash is a child of the European dream that from the post-World War II period to the present day, despite everything, still never ceases to fascinate. Patrie traces triumphs and tragedies of this dream moving masterfully between political analysis, reportage and intimate memory. Crossing places and events that have marked the past and still affect our lives, Garton Ash returns, on the thread of his father's memories, to the day of the Normandy landings; he recounts what it means to be guarded by the Stasi; he relives the many encounters of his career, each offering a different idea of the future, from guerrillas in the mountains of Kosovo to teenagers in the Parisian banlieues, to presidents and prime ministers of major countries. And in reflecting on how Europe has left behind the devastation of weapons and built on the rubbles of the Berlin Wall a future of democracy, he makes an urgent appeal to the citizens of this ancient continent to understand and defend what has been so painstakingly won, and to continue to work for a shared future.

Programme

Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford

Nathalie Tocci, Director, IAI

Working language: English