The sovereign remedy of European unity: The progressive left and supranational government 1935–1945

Abstract

This article is about the role the concept of European unity played in the political discourse of Britain's progressive intellectuals between Italy's invasion of Ethiopia and the end of World War II. It argues that the progressives saw European unity in a socialist federation as a way of staving off the disasters of war, the European hegemony of Nazi Germany, the restoration of ‘small states’ in post-war Europe and a damaging post-war rupture between the democracies and the USSR.