In 2010, Robert Menasse journeyed to Brussels to begin work on a novel centered on the European Union. His extended stay resulted in a completely different book--Enraged Citizens, European Peace and Democratic Deficits, a work of nonfiction examining the history of the European project and the evolving politics of nation-states.
Spanning from the beginning of the transnational idea with 1951's Montanunion--the European Coal and Steel Community--to the current financial crisis, Menasse focuses on the institutional structures and forces both advancing and obstructing the European...