Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent

• In Brussels in 2004, more than 55 percent of the children born were of immigrant parents
• Half of all female scientists in Germany are childless
• According to a poll in 2005, more than 40 percent of British Muslims said Jews were a legitimate target for terrorist attacks

What happens when a falling birthrate collides with uncontrolled immigration? The Last Days of Europe explores how a massive influx from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East has loaded Europe with a burgeoning population of immigrants, many of whom have no wish to be integrated into European societies but make full use of the host nations' generous free social services.
One of the master historians of twentieth-century Europe, Walter Laqueur is renowned for his "gold standard" studies of fascism, terrorism, and anti-Semitism. Here he describes how unplanned immigration policies and indifference coinciding with internal political and social crises have led to a continent-wide identity crisis. "Self-ghettoization" by immigrant groups has caused serious social and political divisions and intense resentment and xenophobia among native Europeans. Worse, widespread educational failure resulting in massive youth unemployment and religious or ideological disdain for the host country have bred extremist violence, as seen in the London and Madrid bombings and the Paris riots. Laqueur urges European policy makers to maintain strict controls with regard to the abuse of democratic freedoms by preachers of hate and to promote education, productive work, and integration among the new immigrants.
Written with deep concern and cool analysis by a European-born historian with a gift for explaining complex subjects, this lucid, unflinching analysis will be a must-read for anyone interested in international politics and the so-called clash of civilizations.

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Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent

• In Brussels in 2004, more than 55 percent of the children born were of immigrant parents
• Half of all female scientists in Germany are childless
• According to a poll in 2005, more than 40 percent of British Muslims said Jews were a legitimate target for terrorist attacks

What happens when a falling birthrate collides with uncontrolled immigration? The Last Days of Europe explores how a massive influx from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East has loaded Europe with a burgeoning population of immigrants, many of whom have no wish to be integrated into European societies but make full use of the host nations' generous free social services.
One of the master historians of twentieth-century Europe, Walter Laqueur is renowned for his "gold standard" studies of fascism, terrorism, and anti-Semitism. Here he describes how unplanned immigration policies and indifference coinciding with internal political and social crises have led to a continent-wide identity crisis. "Self-ghettoization" by immigrant groups has caused serious social and political divisions and intense resentment and xenophobia among native Europeans. Worse, widespread educational failure resulting in massive youth unemployment and religious or ideological disdain for the host country have bred extremist violence, as seen in the London and Madrid bombings and the Paris riots. Laqueur urges European policy makers to maintain strict controls with regard to the abuse of democratic freedoms by preachers of hate and to promote education, productive work, and integration among the new immigrants.
Written with deep concern and cool analysis by a European-born historian with a gift for explaining complex subjects, this lucid, unflinching analysis will be a must-read for anyone interested in international politics and the so-called clash of civilizations.

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Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent

Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent

by Walter Laqueur
Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent

Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent

by Walter Laqueur

Paperback(First Edition)

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Overview

• In Brussels in 2004, more than 55 percent of the children born were of immigrant parents
• Half of all female scientists in Germany are childless
• According to a poll in 2005, more than 40 percent of British Muslims said Jews were a legitimate target for terrorist attacks

What happens when a falling birthrate collides with uncontrolled immigration? The Last Days of Europe explores how a massive influx from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East has loaded Europe with a burgeoning population of immigrants, many of whom have no wish to be integrated into European societies but make full use of the host nations' generous free social services.
One of the master historians of twentieth-century Europe, Walter Laqueur is renowned for his "gold standard" studies of fascism, terrorism, and anti-Semitism. Here he describes how unplanned immigration policies and indifference coinciding with internal political and social crises have led to a continent-wide identity crisis. "Self-ghettoization" by immigrant groups has caused serious social and political divisions and intense resentment and xenophobia among native Europeans. Worse, widespread educational failure resulting in massive youth unemployment and religious or ideological disdain for the host country have bred extremist violence, as seen in the London and Madrid bombings and the Paris riots. Laqueur urges European policy makers to maintain strict controls with regard to the abuse of democratic freedoms by preachers of hate and to promote education, productive work, and integration among the new immigrants.
Written with deep concern and cool analysis by a European-born historian with a gift for explaining complex subjects, this lucid, unflinching analysis will be a must-read for anyone interested in international politics and the so-called clash of civilizations.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780312541835
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication date: 03/03/2009
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Walter Laqueur has written more than twenty books, translated into as many languages. He was a cofounder and editor of the Journal of Contemporary History in London. Concurrently he was chairman of the International Research Council of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He has taught at Georgetown, Chicago, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Brandeis, and Tel Aviv universities. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

"[A]lmost overnight what had been considered a minor problem on a local level is becoming a major political issue, for there is growing resistance on the part of the native population, who resent becoming strangers in their own homelands." —from the Introduction

"Even if Europe's decline is now irreversible, there is no reason that it should become a collapse. There is, however, a precondition: facing realities at long last. . . . The age of delusions is over. . . . It will be a very slow process and the outcome will be a Europe quite different from the one we have known." —from chapter 6, "The Failure of Integration, and Europe's Future"

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

A Very Brief Trip Through a Future Europe 1

The Last Days of Old Europe 8

1 Europe Shrinking 21

2 Migrations 33

France: Algeria to Paris 49

Germany: Eastern Anatolia to Berlin 60

United Kingdom: Bangladesh to the East End 69

Islamophobia and Discrimination 79

Euro Islam and Tariq Ramadan 88

Islamist Violence in Europe 95

3 The Long Road to European Unity 107

4 The Trouble with the Welfare State 123

Germany 135

France 139

United Kingdom 142

Italy and Spain 144

5 Russia: A False Dawn? 149

6 The Failure of Integration, and Europe's Future 167

What Went Wrong? 167

Europe: What Remains? 174

The Future of Muslim Europe: United Kingdom 178

The Future of Muslim Europe: France 188

The Future of Muslim Europe: Germany 191

Spain 196

Dreaming of a United Europe 199

Salvaging the Welfare State 202

Toward Binational States? 204

Turkey to the Rescue? 223

Afterword to the Paperback Edition 227

Bibliography 231

Index 239

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