This book provides a path-breaking political theory of EU identity formation by drawing on an interpretative tradition that grounds political identities in the speeches and deeds of political actors. At important historical junctures between 1950 and 2009, this monograph probes stories of European actors with philosophical concepts developed by six major contemporary political theorists: Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, J rgen Habermas, Karl Jaspers, Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor, and detects three principles of action behind major EC/EU initiatives: reconciliation, power as action in concert...