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The Europeans
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Studies on the European Polity
BRENTNELSEN,SERIES EDITOR
Europe and the Middle East:
In the Shadow of September 11
Richard Youngs
Sustaining European Monetary Union:
Confronting the Cost of Diversity
Tal Sadeh
The Europeans:
Political Identity in an Emerging Polity
David Michael Green
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The Europeans
Political Identity in
an Emerging Polity
David Michael Green
boulder
london
Green_Complete.qxd 1/25/07 2:28 PM Page iii

Published in the United States of America in 2007 by
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
1800 30th Street, Boulder, Colorado 80301
www.rienner.com
and in the United Kingdom by
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
3Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8LU
© 2007 by Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Green, David Michael, 1958–
The Europeans : political identity in an emerging polity / David Michael Green.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58826-355-1 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. National characteristics, European. 2. Europe—Civilization—1945–
3. Europe—Politics and government—1945– I. Title.
D1055.G73 2007
940.55—dc22
2006033581
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
ACataloguing in Publication record for this book
is available from the British Library.
Printed and bound in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992.
54321
∞∞
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For Liz, Bud, and Janet
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For until the great majority of Europeans, the great mass of the
middle and lower classes, are ready to imbibe these European
messages in a similar manner and to feel inspired by them to com-
mon action and community, the edifice of “Europe” at the politi-
cal level will remain shaky. . . . Hence the importance of basing
any European project on firm and deep cultural and social foun-
dations that are to some extent independent of economic and po-
litical fluctuations, even of the much vaunted trends of mass
democracy and popular capitalism.
—Anthony Smith (1992: 73, 75)
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1Introduction: The Study of European Political Identity 1
2The Idea of European Identity 33
3Are There Any “Europeans” in Europe? 51
4Who Are the “Europeans”? Explaining Variance
inLevels of European Identity 71
5What Does It Mean to Be “European”? The Nature and Content of European Identity 109
6How “European” Are the Europeans?
The Depth of European Identification 131
7Conclusion: European Identity and Its Context 147
Appendixes
1Summary of Elite Informants Interviewed 167
2Summary of Targeted European Identifiers Interviewed171
3Summary of Respondents to the Survey of European
Identifiers 173
ix
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4Summary of Survey Datasets Analyzed 175
5Basic Script for Interviews of Elite Informants 177
6Basic Script for Interviews of Targeted
European Identifiers 179
7Survey of European Identifier Instruments 181
8Summary of Ancillary Events Attended During
1998 Fieldwork 187
References
189
Index 197
About the Book 203
x Contents
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Tables and Figures
Tables
3.1Identification with Europe 53
3.2 Identification Levels for Various Geopolities 56
3.3 Identification with Europe, by Country, Format One
Identity Questions 58
3.4 Identification with Europe, by Country, Format Two
Identity Questions 59
3.5Identification with Europe, by Country,Format Three
Identity Questions 60
3.6Identification with Europe, by Country, Format Four
Identity Questions 61
3.7Identification Levels for Various Geopolities, by Continent63
4.1AEffects on European Identification, Using Member-State
Variables, Format One and Format Two Identity Questions74
4.1BEffects on European Identification, Using Member-State
Variables, Format Four Identity Questions 79
4.2 Effects on European Identification, Using Member-State and
Political-Cultural Variables, Format Three Identity Questions 82
4.3 Effects of Independent Variables on European Identification,
Using Member-State and Political-Cultural Variables,
Format Three Identity Questions 84
4.4 Comparative Levels of Attachment to Europe 97
4.5A Effects on European Identification, Using Political-Cultural
Variables, Format One and Format Two Identity Questions 101
4.5B Effects on European Identification, Using Political-Cultural
Variables, Format Four Identity Questions 102
xi
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5.1 Is There a Shared European Cultural Identity? 111
5.2 Content of European Identity, by Nationality 113
5.3 Content of European Identity, by European Identity Level 115
5.4 Factors Linking EC Countries Together, by Nationality 117
5.5 Factors Linking EC Countries Together, by European
Identity Level 118
5.6 Aspects of Europe Most Attached To, by Nationality 120
5.7 Aspects of Europe Most Attached To, by European
Identity Level 121
5.8 Ways of Life, Standards, and Values That Are Specifically
European 122
5.9 Meaning of Being European—Open Response Question 123
5.10 Meaning of Being Part of Nation—Open Response Question 124
5.11 Meaning of Being Part of Region—Open Response Question 124
6.1 Causes Worth Risks and Sacrifices, by Nationality 133
6.2 Causes Worth Risks and Sacrifices, by European Identity
Level 134
6.3 Should EC Countries Assist Another in Trouble? 136
6.4Various Questions Regarding Personal Sacrifice,
by Nationality 138
6.5 Willingness to Sacrifice for European Unification,
by Nationality 140
6.6 Willingness to Sacrifice for European Unification,
by European Identity Level 141
6.7Willingness to Sacrifice for Regional, National, and
European Polities, by Type of Sacrifice 142
Figures
3.1 European Identification over Time 67
xii Tables and Figures
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xiii
Acknowledgments
THIS PROJECT HAS HADalong incubation period leading to its present form. It
was originally conceived of in the early years of my graduate study, when it
occurred to me that European integration studies could well benefit from some
of the analytical approaches employed by the subfield of comparative politics,
and that the matter of a continental identity could be as crucial to shaping his-
torical trajectories—even in its absence—as nationalism had been in previous
centuries.
In addition to my substantive advocacy for attention to the question of Eu-
ropean identity,Iwould also be pleased—at the risk of being perceived (incor-
rectly,Ihope) as immodest—if the form of this study added a small rivulet to
the great stream of contemporary political inquiry,steering that river slightly
more in the direction of solid empiricism and slightly away from improbable
grasps at theory,slightly more toward real-world relevance and slightly away
from what one political scientist has rightly described as the discipline’scur-
rent “instinct for the capillary.” Whether those are worthy goals, and whether
this book makes a positive contribution toward achieving them, must ulti-
mately be the judgment of each reader. Here, I can only indicate my own pre-
scriptions and aspirations.
This book has been a fairly massive undertaking for a single scholar, and
in fact would have been impossible without the contributions of many good
and generous people. I have benefited along the way from countless helping
hands, some of whom I am now pleased to also call my friends, all of whom I
wish to know the deep extent of my gratitude.
In graduate school, I was well served indeed by some excellent training
on the road to becoming a political scientist by profession. I am particularly
grateful to Paul Diehl, Jim Kuklinski, Paul Schroeder, and Dina Zinnes for the
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wonderful vistas of methodology, epistemology, philosophy, and substantive
content they opened for me, and for their support of my work. I only hope this
book will make them proud of their contributions to my development as a
scholar. I am also very grateful to Mark Pollack, Graham Wilson, and Craw-
ford Young, who gave extensively of their time and insights in helping to
shape an earlier version of this study.
Others, as well, made smaller but still crucially helpful contributions. My
hat is off to Cedric Jourde for translation assistance with my survey instru-
ment, and to Michael Schatzberg, Bob Turner, Charles Franklin, and espe-
cially Paul Martin for many hours of generous assistance on methodological
issues and strategies. I am grateful for the survey data made available by the
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in Ann
Arbor, and for the prompt and repeated assistance of Robin Rice, Kim Tully,
and others at the University of Wisconsin’s Data and Program Library Service
in accessing those data.
Myvarious ventures into the field for purposes of this study were really
more fun than anyone should be allowed to have while at work. This was in
no small part because of the generosity of the Europeans who volunteered
their time and thoughtful responses to my questions and made my data collec-
tion easy, interesting, and truly pleasurable. I thank them profoundly, one and
all, and especially two who helped facilitate my contact with multiple inter-
viewees and thus greatly improved the scope of the project: many thanks to
Jörg Mathias and Aidan Gilligan. I would also very much like to thank the staff
of the College of Europe, the Congress of Europe, the People’s Europe Con-
ference, and the European Parliament (especially Member of the European
Parliament David Martin and his staff) for throwing open their doors to this
Yankee interloper with notepad, pen, and endless questions. I am especially in-
debted to Colin Bartie, who started offas an interviewee and quickly became
afriend, and who, along with his wonderful family,has been an endless source
of gracious hospitality and professional assistance with this project over the
years.
Recently,Ihave had the good fortune to work with Lynne Rienner and her
excellent staff in the preparation of this book. I very much appreciate all of
them for their interest, support, and nurturing of the project, but none so much
as series editor Brent Nelsen, my comrade-in-arms in the trenches of European
public opinion studies. Brent has been great, as has the Rienner team, and I
thank them for their help in bringing this work to fruition.
Ialso owe a debt of gratitude to my family, friends, and colleagues, who
have supported my efforts over the years, sometimes simply with their inter-
est in my work, sometimes more directly. I wish to thank Debby and Pat, and
Bill and Shirley, in particular, for their steadfast moral support, and my dear
friends Jackie and Bill Slee, for the constancy of their efforts to help me real-
xiv Acknowledgments
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ize my goals. The others are too many in number to mention here, though I
hope they will all know how much I appreciate their many contributions.
Finally, I dedicate this book to Liz, Bud, and Janet, who were unyield-
ingly generous in their support, and unsparingly gracious in understanding the
commitment required to wrestle a project of this scale to the ground. This book
is their book, too, and they have earned my deepest loving gratitude in help-
ing to bring it to life.
—David Michael Green
xvAcknowledgments
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1
Introduction: The Study
of European Political Identity
The Prince must have the people well disposed toward him. Otherwise, in times of
adversity, there is no hope.
—Machiavelli
IMAGINE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION had not occurred. Imagine that Napoleon
had not assembled a people’s Grand Armée and swept it across the face of Eu-
rope. Imagine that this army had not produced a reciprocal effect wherever it
marched, that it had not fostered the construction of nation-states all over the
continent. What if there had been no unification of Italy, no powerful new Ger-
many? For that matter,imagine that the United States had not united much at
all, but had remained a set of loosely affiliated (or perhaps even antagonistic
separate countries.
Now suppose that World War I had never transpired. Nor Japanese impe-
rialism, national socialism in Germany,the Holocaust, nor all of World War II.
Imagine that North America, Latin America, Africa, and much of Asia re-
mained, to this day,European colonial possessions, and that the United Na-
tions was an exclusive club for a small handful of member-states, if it had
come into existence at all.
Consider a world this fantastically different from the one we inhabit, and
then ask a simple question: What historical change—what single factor—
could account for unraveling so many of the most salient developments of the
past two centuries? There is only one answer: political identity. Or, more
specifically for purposes of this exercise in counterfactual history, one partic-
ular form of political identity: nationalism.
With the possible exception of the explosion in scientific and technologi-
cal prowess experienced in recent centuries, it is difficult to imagine a single
phenomenon that alone can fully or partially account for more of the most con-
sequential developments of this period than does nationalism. In addition to
playing a prominent role in all the great conflicts of the past two centuries, and
to restructuring the world through colonialism and then again through decolo-
nization, nationalism has filled the hearts of countless millions of men and
1
Green_Complete.qxd 1/25/07 10:52 AM Page 1

women across the planet, often giving a sense of meaning to their lives that is
otherwise unavailable to them as individuals.
But what if nationalism had never happened? Or what if political identity
in the historical period we call modernity had possessed radically different
characteristics? Suppose it had not stirred the hearts of men and women and
moved them to make the greatest sacrifices as well as to commit the most un-
speakable crimes in its name. What if there had existed, instead of the emo-
tionally charged primordialisms at the core of most nationalisms, more of a re-
ciprocal, cerebral, and benign sort of relationship between nations and
nationals, such that the
payscould only expect as much as it was willing to
tangibly provide in return—a sort of rational business transaction, a quid pro
quo, in place of a passionate and unidirectional adoration as strong as any?
If that had been the case, none of the crucially defining events and devel-
opments of modernity would have turned out the way they did, and many of
them would be completely unimaginable at all. Of course, this hypothetical
scenario is not what happened. Instead, an extremely powerful emotional
force—political identity, in the form of nationalism—has gripped the world
for at least two centuries, and has written many of the major chapters of its
modern history.Yet the counterfactual questions above show not only the
power of political identity, but also the consequences of its particular charac-
ter and form. Those questions remain as significant as ever, and the current po-
litical environment is as determined by their answers as was the past.
This book examines a relatively new sort of mass identity, found in Eu-
rope and very much the product of the peculiarities of both recent and ex-
tended European history.This European identity has characteristics signifi-
cantly different from those of nineteenth- and twentieth-century nationalisms,
afact that, beyond the many implications for Europe itself, raises a host of
possibilities about the very nature of political identification as a general social
and political phenomenon in the new millennium.
There are multiple possible interpretations of this anomalous European
identity,and several of these are discussed in the concluding chapter to this
volume. One, however,is most intriguing. It posits that European identity is a
vanguard, articulating the emerging nature of political identification in the
epoch the world is now entering, the period following modernity. It suggests
that other identities may come to take the same form that European identifica-
tion now does today—just as Europe previously pioneered nationalism and
many other sociopolitical phenomena, including the very structure of interna-
tional politics prevalent in the world today (the Westphalian system), before
exporting them far beyond the boundaries of that small bit of real estate at the
western end of the Eurasian land mass.
In short—and at the risk of employing a term both constituted of multiple
meanings and simultaneously fraught with all manner of social, political, theo-
2 The Europeans
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retical, epistemological, and moral baggage
1
—what today’s Europe suggests is
nothing less than the possibility of a postmodern identity,with all the deeply
significant changes likely attendant to such a major development.
The historical counterfactuals presented above show how consequential
such a development might be to the unfolding of global history. Just as the his-
tory of the past two centuries would have been dramatically different had na-
tionalism been either nonexistent or of a different character, so too will the un-
folding of the coming era be significantly altered should political identification
take a different shape from the one we’ve known to date.
One way to grasp this is to again engage in some retrospective historical
analysis, but this time from the vantage point of the future. In the introductory
chapter to her edited volume
National Histories and European History(1993),
Mary Fulbrook tells an imaginative story of European integration, looking
back from the other side of the twenty-first century. A multicultural, multieth-
nic, and multilingual “United States of Europe” has been forged, complete
with a European identity and historians to write (invent?) its history as the tri-
umph of progressive forces over those of backward provincial opponents.
2
While certainly not everyone’s vision of Europe’s ideal future, Fulbrook’s
clever extrapolation from the experience of European nation-states is notable
for the prominence it gives to the role of identity in the creation and mainte-
nance of viable polities. Any number of other scholars have also pointed to the
same crucial nexus,
3
some illustrating the relationship from a negative per-
spective, substituting a discussion of the risks of ignoring identity for Ful-
brook’s portrayal of its positive capacities.
What is certainly clear,in the end, is that identity matters. It has mattered
in Europe and the world in the past, it matters in the present, and it is highly
likely that it will matter in the future. And, arguably, it matters especially in
Europe, home over the previous half century to the world’smost creative ex-
perimentation in the design of political institutions and of polities themselves.
Europe at the millennium is a social scientist’slaboratory, and—among oth-
ers—it begs the question of political identity.
But this question has received insufficient scholarly attention to date. In
1969, Leon Lindberg and Stuart Scheingold wrote of a “permissive consensus”
on the part of the European body politic
4
that was sufficient to sustain the inte-
grative efforts of elites. That same year, however, former European Commis-
sion president Walter Hallstein was already warning of the dangers inherent in
building an economic and institutional edifice on the weak foundation of indif-
ferent public support. Hallstein ominously noted that “the construction of Eu-
rope is unfinished,” and that the continued failure to involve citizens in the
process meant that “even those parts, which are already set up, could be jeop-
ardized” (Papcke 1992: 67
union, Karlheinz Reif noted that so many competences have been transferred to
3Introduction
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Brussels that, combined with the lack of mechanisms available for citizens to
influence policy outcomes there, the legitimacy of the European Union (EU)—
and therefore the Union itself—was at risk (1993: 134).
For these reasons, and because the complexity of contemporary Europe pro-
vides for students of political identity a fascinating academic case study, inde-
pendent of any consequences on the ground, this book seeks to examine the ques-
tion of European identity in its multiple dimensions, both theoretical and
empirical. It finds that a European identity does indeed exist, though it is a mi-
nority sentiment, and one that is particularly prominent among elites and sympa-
thizers of the integration project. Moreover—and perhaps more significantly—
this identity is of a different quality than political identities typical of the past.
Where nationalisms tend to be highly emotionally charged identities, often built
on some primordially defined and exclusivist content, European identity emerges
as more of a dispassionate, cognitively oriented persuasion for those who possess
it, rooted in normative values such as peace, democracy, human rights, and—
ironically—diversity and tolerance. As noted above, multiple interpretations of
the identity are possible based on these conclusions, but the most compelling of
these (theoretically and normatively
multilevel, instrumental, and emotionally desiccated form of identification may
be a harbinger for the future of political identities more broadly, beyond Europe’s
borders, under the cultural conditions of a world transitioning beyond modernity.
This and other interpretations of the book’sfindings are discussed in the concluding
chapter, but before examining these ideas and the observations on which they’re
based, it is worth detailing more fully why a study of European identity matters.
The Significance of Identity
The accomplishments of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and
its successor institutions—up through and including the European Union—are
surely remarkable developments in modern history.This is true for a number of
reasons. First, nowhere else in the world has a supranational (or,more accu-
rately, a suprastate) governmental structure developed such breadth of compe-
tence, such institutional elaboration, and such genuine, autonomous power.
Second, this development has occurred in
Europe,of all places, site of history’s
most intense and destructive national rivalries over religion, commerce, colo-
nialism, territory, power, and prestige—rivalries that culminated in centuries of
increasingly fierce fratricidal conflict. Indeed, beyond the noteworthiness of its
very existence, all the more remarkable is the fact that European integration oc-
curred directly on the heels of the worst of these conflagrations.
5
The explanation for this astonishing development, and the integration
project’s real purpose—to prevent the reoccurrence of such catastrophes—is
itself a third reason European integration deserves scholarly attention; it rep-
4 The Europeans
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resents perhaps the most promising experiment to date in efforts to transcend
the millennia-old curse of war between states. Though the capacity of current
institutional structures to guarantee against militarized conflict is dangerously
overestimated by some, the boldness and successes of the project are never-
theless noteworthy (in addition to being underestimated by others
European integration has been remarkable for the rapidity of its development,
however rocky that process has been. Even theorists of international politics,
who might be expected to take a longer view on the matter, too often neglect
the extended temporal scale of historical state- and nation-building
processes—the closest analogues to European integration—when wringing
their hands at the “slow” or stalled development of the project (e.g., Haas
1975). But a broader perspective on these events instead suggests that tremen-
dous change has occurred in a relatively short time. Desmond Dinan cogently
summarized the scale of the achievement over a decade ago, well before the
occurrence of monetary union and enlargement across the old Iron Curtain,
perhaps the greatest integrative leaps to date:
The EC’s[European Community’s] pervasiveness tends to obscure its
uniqueness and relative newness. The voluntary sharing of sovereignty by
nation-states—the ever closer union envisioned in the treaties of Rome and
Maastricht and implicit in the term “European integration”—is unprece-
dented in modern history. Before World War II, the kind of European Com-
munity with which we are so familiar today was a pipe dream. Nations jeal-
ously guarded their sovereignty (national authority) and cooperated only on
the basis of intergovernmental agreement. Less than fifty years ago, France
and Germany were implacable enemies. (1994: 2)
In short, the postwar achievement of Western Europe is unprecedented
and remarkable, and should not be underestimated. Yet—without diminishing
in any way what has been accomplished—neither should it be overestimated
or misconstrued. While the institutional superstructure of European integration
has developed with great rapidity,it rests precariously on a foundation of mass
public indifference and, all too often, even antipathy.Moreover,whatever pop-
ular opinionholds of the European Union and its various projects, a European
identityclearly has not developed to capture the hearts and minds of most Eu-
ropeans. I argue that such an identity is not only interesting and significant, but
also in fact crucial—and therefore worthy of attention—for four reasons, rang-
ing from the purely academic and semantic to the very pragmatic.
First, recent events in Europe (particularly public reactions to the de-
mands and sacrifices associated with the run-up to monetary union, then later
the rejection of constitutional referenda) only reinforce the argument that the
success of European integration may be jeopardized by any approach that as-
sumes too much of institutional development without sufficient regard for the
significance of popular identities. To date, while the former has received enor-
5Introduction
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mous attention and has prospered accordingly, the latter has been left gener-
ally unattended and thus largely underdeveloped. Even if the preservation of
existing institutions is all that is at issue, the affective ties of the European
body politic are likely to be critical to Europe’s future, as indicated in the An-
thony Smith quotation that prefaces this book. And, to the extent that even fur-
ther integration is desired or pursued in Europe, the issue of identity will be-
come increasingly critical.
Second, the character of popular identities in Europe has other profound
material implications, as well. Not least of these concerns the desire to make
war “unthinkable” and “materially impossible,” as the EU’s founders in-
tended, an outcome that cannot be guaranteed without concomitant shifts in
identity. Only when there is no “we” and no “they,” but only “us,” can war be-
come entirely unthinkable—by definition—for at that point there are no pos-
sible adversaries left to engage one another.
Third, European identity matters for social scientists, who have heretofore
largely defined the concept of “integration”
6
according to the trajectory of de-
velopments in postwar Western Europe. This usage allows a single, recent, and
erratically evolving case to define what should be an autonomous social science
concept. It also unhelpfully restricts wider application of the concept and more
generalized theorizing across geopolitical levels (e.g., to localities, nations, re-
gions), and across cases. As well, the extant definition diminishes clarity of
usage and the distinction between integration and other concepts, such as inter-
dependence, alliances, treaties, international regimes, international organiza-
tions, globalization (albeit on a regional level), and state-building.
Finally,as described previously and discussed in further detail in the
book’sconcluding chapter,European identity is worth our attention because it
represents something substantially different from that which has heretofore
been observed in the world. This alone makes it interesting, significant, and
worthy of investigation. However,if this form of identification also points the
way toward the future shape of political identity beyond the shores of Europe,
it is therefore all the more important. Each of these reasons for addressing Eu-
ropean identity is discussed in greater detail in the pages that follow.
The Welfare and Viability of Polities
It has so far been suggested that the attention of both scholars and actors to
questions of political identity is important, for the multiple and specific rea-
sons detailed above. Nevertheless, students of European integration might be
tempted to dismiss the general argument on the basis of what could be consid-
ered substantial prima facie evidence to the contrary: namely, the European
Union exists, and has grown considerably and rapidly, despite little engage-
ment of its body politic in the process. Yet, while this observation is true, it
should not be taken as a guarantee of the EU’s longevity. As David Easton and
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Jack Dennis noted, polities are dependent on a level of “diffuse support [that]
forms a reservoir upon which a system typically draws in times of crises, such
as depressions, wars, and internecine conflicts, when perceived benefits may
recede to their lowest ebb” (1969: 63). Machiavelli made the same point, as
indicated in the quotation introducing this chapter.
It seems likely that this logic would apply to the European Union as well,
and therefore the degree to which the EU now remains aloof from popular iden-
tification bodes ill for its continued development and even existence, especially
should events and conditions strain the patience of Europeans (even if such
conditions are, in fact, actually unrelated to European institutions or their poli-
cies and behaviors). In this regard, it must be noted that the project of European
integration has thus far largely taken place in highly munificent times, econom-
ically and politically; Europeans at all socioeconomic levels have experienced
levels of wealth and peace unprecedented in the continent’s history. This has
been an ideal climate in which to launch the EU experiment, but the institu-
tional products of such favorable conditions are not necessarily indicative of so-
lidified European integration. What happens if times get tougher? European
states and, to a lesser extent, their constitutional regimes, largely withstood the
corrosive effects of the Great Depression and World War II (though govern-
ments were generally more expendable) because of the reservoirs of identifica-
tion and loyalty upon which they could draw. What would happen to the EU
and its existing institutional achievements in the face of meaner times? A lack
of diffuse support could very possibly result in rapid breakdown, especially
should those institutions be popularly perceived as either a cause of such woes
or a barrier to their remedy,with such perceptions perhaps being driven by ei-
ther genuinely or opportunistically Euroskeptic politicians and media outlets.
The first argument for the significance of popular identities in Europe,
thus, is that the European Union—notwithstanding its achievements to date—
remains a “shaky edifice” that may not necessarily withstand substantial pres-
sures should Europe’sfuture winds blow ill. Indeed, it lacks the very founda-
tion of deep public attachment on which to make such a stand. This argument,
moreover,is more than just speculative—muted manifestations of such effects
have arguably already been observed to date. Louise van Tartwijk-Novey sug-
gests, for example, that such pressures and their resultant disagreeable effects
characterized the public reaction to the Maastricht Treaty at a time of general
discontent and anger:
Dissatisfied with the recession and rising unemployment, resentful of the in-
flux of immigrants, fearful of the future for France’sagricultural sector and ap-
prehensive of the reappearance of their historical rival, a single Germany, the
French voters directed their anger at the treaty. Unfortunately, Kohl could offer
Mitterrand only little solace as sections of the normally pro-European German
population had also begun to show signs of souring on the merits of further in-
tegration. While the Maastricht Treaty was not given a public referendum in
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Germany, the treaty still had to be approved by the German parliament, and the
domestic political debate over the treaty was coinciding uncomfortably with
the realities of the costs of German reunification. Attached as they were to the
D-mark, as a symbol of their country’s postwar success, Germans began to
have second thoughts about relinquishing it to a single European currency, and
with the mounting costs of reunification many felt that their country could ill
afford the further burden of [the Economic and Monetary Union]. In fact all
across the Union no government leaders were in any position to rally to the
treaty’s defence as the political establishment and their prize treaty took a se-
vere public beating. (1995: 12–13)
Indeed, as the run-up to monetary union required sacrifices in several
member countries, hostility to the EU grew, feeding the power of extremist
politicians on the right. This was certainly an ironic outcome for an organiza-
tion contrived chiefly for the purpose of transcending nationalist sentiments
and their pernicious effects.
And while the above passage demonstrates public hostility to a particular
EU initiative seeking sectoral enlargement, it might just as well have referred
to existing EU institutions or the integration project itself. It is not hard to
imagine how this absence of public affect might be mobilized against EU in-
stitutions in the future, particularly should they be regarded as costly by citi-
zens experiencing lean times. A cursory examination of the treatment of Eu-
rope by some national media and politicians reveals an already long-standing
tradition of beating up on the EU, even in good times. Moreover, that the ef-
fects described above evidently took European leaders by surprise only under-
scores the argument that policymakers and scholars alike have devoted insuf-
ficient attention to the question of popular sentiments, loyalties, and identities,
and that the European polity therefore remains at risk. Martin Slater summa-
rizes well:
Asecond reason for looking more closely at elite-mass relationships con-
cerns the broader question of the viability of any political community. One
of the central issues in integration theory is that of the popular legitimacy of
political institutions. Almost by definition, the building of a political commu-
nity means the creation of a sense of community or solidarity among the peo-
ple of a given region. It is this sense of solidarity which gives legitimacy to
the Community’s institutions. A viable political community needs the alle-
giance of its mass public as well as that of elites. In the case of the European
Community, a lack of public commitment to Europe tends to be seen as a
major threat to the existence of the Community. (1982: 155
If, as argued above, Europe is now a grown-up polity, then it must face the
challenges incumbent upon all adults. In particular, if it is to expect the
progress made over the past half century to be able to weather difficult
storms—let alone if there is to be further development—then the foundations
of the European project must be built on firmer grounds than the shifting sands
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of public indifference and occasional hostility that presently (fail to
the Union. The best bulwark for ensuring the success of European institutional
integration, then, is an equally developed positive affect among Europeans. In
short, like any polity, a successful Europe requires a robust European identity.
Prevention of War
Without question, the prevention of war has been at the heart of centuries’
worth of dreams of European integration. In fact, it has been the motivating
force behind most of those dreams (Nicoll and Salmon 1990: 2; Squires 1994:
9). But whatever the dreams of the Dantes or Kants of distant days, even more
apparent is that the issue of peace between European states was the guiding
principle for the architects of the current European project. As Dinan notes,
“To a great extent, the EC was a security system for Western Europe” (1994:
2). Miles Hewstone relates this history in memorable terms: “Fear, says
Barzini (1983), was
theprime motivation. Fear of Russia’s military might, fear
of America’s economic might, and the Europeans’ fear of themselves. As
Barzini says of these Europeans: ‘They know anything might happen in Eu-
rope because everything has happened’” (1986: 3, emphasis in original).
Fresh on the heels of three Franco-German wars in almost as many gen-
erations, this concern weighed heavily on the French in particular. In 1950,
France was once again brought face-to-face with its recurrent national security
nightmare as the British and Americans became indifferent toward, if not en-
couraging of, German remilitarization in the context of the increasingly all-de-
termining exigencies of the Cold War.For Germany,meanwhile, the primary
foreign policy goal of the day was the rehabilitation of its moral reputation and
readmittance to the international community of civilized states, following the
disaster of national socialism and World War II.
It was both in, and because of, this context that Jean Monnet struck upon
his plan for a lasting solution to ongoing French security fears (Monnet 1978).
Likewise, when French foreign minister Robert Schuman issued his famous
declaration of May 9, 1950, leading to the development of the European Coal
and Steel Community, his clear and famously articulated intent was to make
war between Germany and France “not merely unthinkable, but materially im-
possible” (Schuman 1994: 12; Nicoll and Salmon 1990: 8
goal of preventing war remains even today at the core of both elite and nonelite
perceptions of the European Union’s raison d’être. Survey and interview re-
search by Josephine Squires demonstrates that political and business elites are
apt to choose “putting past rivalries behind us and living in peace with the peo-
ple of neighboring countries” more often than any other factor in describing
their sense of what European identity constitutes (1994: 156–158
former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, one of the strongest advocates of fur-
ther integration, highlighted the nexus between integration and peace in com-
ments responding to domestic opposition to the Economic and Monetary Union
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(EMU) program: “‘In spite of recent criticism of the European Union, the fed-
eral government and myself personally are determined to do everything to
make the integration process irreversible,’ the chancellor said. Integration was
and remained ‘the effective insurance’ against nationalism and war” (Atkins
and Barber 1996: 2).
So why should this pursuit of peace in Europe somehow be seen as prob-
lematic? In and of itself, of course, it is laudable. The danger, rather, is in the
potential for disaster that accompanies assumptions that Europe’s institutional
achievements to date somehow provide adequate bulwarks against future war.
An example of this fairly common sentiment is Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard’s as-
sertion that “war between any two member-states is unthinkable because of the
extremely high costs and the close political ties among governments” (1994:
274). But to the extent that it is EU “integration” that is relied on to deter such
war, the risk of unexpected future conflagrations would seem enhanced, iron-
ically, however remote such conflicts certainly are today. It is not that Euro-
pean institutions and integrative efforts themselves in some way promote the
prospects of war (though their potential to actually
divideEuropeans rather
than to integrate them is discussed below). But it could be the case, rather, that
afailure to swiftly mitigate rising potential conflicts might be the product of a
hubristic assumption that EU institutions alone make war “unthinkable.”
As earlier comments in this chapter make clear, the accomplishments of
the European Union are by no means insubstantial. However,they are but one
element of a host of equally remarkable developments that, individually and
especially collectively, provide much better explanations for Europe’s “long
peace” of the previous six decades. Among these factors are
•moral revulsion following two world wars and the Holocaust,
•the unifying pressure on Western Europe emanating from the Cold War
complex of US dominance in the West and the perception of a Soviet
threat from the East,
•French and British nuclear capability,
•German popular pacifism,
• the unprecedented affluence of the postwar period,
• the loss, due to decolonization, of a major potential source of interna-
tional conflict (Britain’s willingness as late as the 1980s to fight the
Falklands War is instructive here),
• the loss of desire for territorial acquisition—another traditional source
of international conflict—due to the ascendance of economic power
relative to military, and due to changes in international norms, and
• the tendency, as Bruce Russett (1993
democracies not to fight one another.
European institutions, in short, should not be assumed to have rendered
war on the continent “unthinkable,” though they have likely played an impor-
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tant role in helping to diminish its probability. Ultimately, however, the funda-
mental (and indeed definitional
making of potential cleavage lines politically irrelevant in the popular mind.
The very phenomenon of war is dependent at its core on a division between
one people and an “Other,” and is not possible to the extent that identity is
shared and such a distinction cannot be made. In other words, if an enemy can-
not be specified—cannot be
identified—it cannot be demonized or engaged in
combat. But today’s Europe is not that integrated, and scholars and policymak-
ers must therefore avoid being seduced by the belief that the current form of
European “integration” satisfies the historical purpose that has driven visions
of a unified continent down nine or more centuries—namely, the pursuit of
peace. It is the integration of popular identity that will be required to accom-
plish this goal, if it is to be accomplished, and not the construction of remote,
let alone sometimes-loathed, institutional structures in Brussels.
Indeed, it is even conceivable that institutional development alone could
actually
exacerbatetensions between Europeans, rather than ameliorate them.
7
If, for example, a particular EU project was seen to have costs for one or more
member-states because of provisions demanded by others, resentment from
within the former might well be directed toward the latter,toward “Europe” it-
self, or toward both. As described above, this is exactly what appeared to be
transpiring as the EU sought to implement monetary union. Thus the French
and Italian publics, forced to sacrifice slivers of welfare-state benefits in order
to qualify for what many already viewed as the dubious privilege of losing
their national currencies, were bound to resent Germans and their strict crite-
ria for EMU membership qualification. More recently,others in the monetary
union have been angered by the rather cavalier manner in which France and
Germany have busted their post-EMU deficit-spending limitations. While
such resentments are, of course, far short of war,
8
they can nevertheless pro-
vide a climate ripe for escalation toward war by xenophobic political actors
seeking to capitalize on the social and economic costs of integration.
Dominique Moïsi illustrates the effect:
Instead of being perceived as a goal or even—less ambitiously—as a solu-
tion, the European Union is seen as either the problem or an irrelevant an-
swer to the daily preoccupations of the French: unemployment and insecu-
rity. In a contradictory manner, the EU is seen as being both too intrusive in
abureaucratic sense and too impotent on the international stage. From the
diktats of Brussels to the failure of Europe in Bosnia, the European project is
losing its allure and purpose for France. The growing discontent is shrewdly
exploited by Jean-Marie Le Pen’sextreme right. (1996: 20)
Moreover, there is some evidence that the popular alienation of Europeans
from Europe was not new to the period preceding monetary union. Van
Tartwijk-Novey describes similar manifestations, with similar effects, in the
“post-Maastricht tension” of the early 1990s:
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In fact it was quite apparent that they [EU citizens] possessed no shared feel-
ing of being “Europeans” at all. . . . This combination of lack of faith in the
leadership and uncertainty about the future was in turn giving rise to a re-
newed sense of nationalism. This divisive nationalism, together with a mis-
trust of European Union motives and methods nearly set the clock backwards
on Union progress. First, in the place of the Maastricht Treaty’s professed
unity, a dangerously divisive rivalry between national politics and Union
agreements had arisen. . . . As governmental leaders exhibited their inability
to offer solutions to faltering home economies, halt growing unemployment,
ease the steady rise in the number of immigrants from Eastern Europe and
North Africa, and assuage worries that national identities were under threat
from Brussels, a reactionary xenophobic upswell gave new support to the far
right. (1995: 15–16)
Thus, the question must be asked, were monetary union or any other in-
stitutional unification project to go forward while in the process alienating
substantial numbers of European citizens from Europe or from one another, by
what definition would this constitute integration? The answer, of course,
points to the fallacy of substituting either institution-building or economic
convergence and interdependence for an apprehension of integration rooted in
notions of popular identity.Again, there should be no mistake but that West-
ern European countries are now far from war with one another—no doubt as
far as they have ever been since the advent of the modern system of states. But
that said, believing that war is today “unthinkable”—or at least that it is un-
thinkable due to the development of existing supranational institutions—reck-
lessly courts disaster. Today’s reactionary xenophobes may lack both the
power and the maleficent designs of their predecessors of the 1930s, but it is
worth remembering that there would be no European integration to speak of
today were it not for the intent of the EU’sfounders to avoid the rise of just
such actors and the sentiments they represent, sentiments for which the
Union’sfounders had developed a healthy and well-justified fear (Squires
1994: 9). Ultimately,real assurance of preventing war in Europe requires noth-
ing short of the advent of a widespread common identity,thus eliminating—
by definition—an enemy against which to fight.
Conceptual Implications
To date, the question of political integration in Europe has been treated as a
phenomenon of international politics. For most of the period in question, this
has been appropriate, because integration has been perhaps more a
processin-
volving multiple states than a resulting condition.Increasingly, however, it is
both. As an emerging polity in its own right, as opposed to either a process
alone, or a collection of units with common purpose (e.g., the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization [NATO]), the European Union must now be treated ac-
cordingly by scholars, thereby entering the domain of comparative politics,
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and subjecting itself to the sorts of questions appropriate to the study of exist-
ing polities. What are the salient institutions of this polity, and how do they re-
late to one another? How deeply does the polity penetrate its respective civil
society? How does it relate to the political units that constitute it and to exter-
nal sovereigns? What sort of actors and politics characterize its decisionmak-
ing processes? What is the relationship of the polity to its body politic? And,
in particular, what is the degree and character of political identity associated
with the polity?
But such analysis is made difficult by a certain imprecision of terminol-
ogy, particularly with respect to the definition of the word
integration.Indeed,
employing this term—at least in its general, unmodified sense—in the absence
of considerations of identity, is rather conceptually problematic. That is, to
what extent may a polity be said to be integrated when little or no sense of
unity or communal consciousness exists? Thus a third reason that identity mat-
ters, I argue, is that it is crucial to, though now largely absent from, a concep-
tually meaningful definition of political integration.
What
isintegration? As Michael Hodges (1978: 247
is little concurrence on the very meaning of this term, a lacuna that has had se-
rious implications for the ability of the field to successfully describe, explain,
and predict within its domain of interest. Nor is Hodges the only scholar of in-
tegration to note the field’s embarrassment of definitional riches. As early as
1971, for example, Fred Hayward (1971: 314–315) identified five conceptually
distinct definitions of regional integration, as well as a disturbing general lack
of clarity in defining integration at the national level. More recently, James
Dougherty and Robert Pfaltzgraff(1990: 432–434) presented twelve defini-
tions, including those from two scholars for whom entries appear
twice—once
with original and once with revised versions. Finally,Carol Glen (1995: 9–10)
described a spectrum of definitions, associated with each of integration theory’s
four major analytical schools, ranging from transactionalism’sshared sense of
community to neofunctionalism’sincremental institution-building. She also
noted that within the field, disagreement remains as to whether integration con-
stitutes a process (per Ernst Haas [1958] and Leon Lindbergand Stuart Schein-
gold [1970]), or a condition (per Amitai Etzioni [1965]).
Despite this lack of consensus regarding the meaning of “integration,”
scholars have by and large been satisfied with employing the term to describe
the sort of institutional development that has occurred in Western Europe since
1952. Effectively, that is, integration is what Europe does. There are several
problems, actual and potential, associated with such an apprehension. In the
first instance, the focus on Europe’s activities on the ground has produced a
working definition of integration that stresses those domains—and only those
domains—in which Europe has been successful. Thus, for most scholars and
policymakers, the term
integrationrefers to the economic and institution-
building processes that have characterized the European postwar experience.
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Even from a perspective solely concerned with the needs of social science, this
is a problematic development. Cases should not define concepts, especially
single cases, cases of relatively recent origin, or cases characterized by erratic
development—all of which are attributes of European “integration.”
The danger presented by such a scenario is at least twofold. First, if cases
define concepts, what happens should the case mutate into another form?
What if the European experience had been generally characterized by political
(i.e., defense and foreign policy) cooperation and consolidation rather than
economic—as might well have happened, had not the French National Assem-
bly rejected the European Defense Community (EDC) and European Political
Cooperation (EPC
in meaning accordingly, and if so, can it really be said that it has any au-
tonomous meaning of consequence? Of even greater importance, the second
danger of a sui generis definition of this or any other concept is that it dimin-
ishes the possibilities of both comparison with and cross-fertilization from
other areas of inquiry. There may be much to be learned about European inte-
gration, for example, by its comparison to state-building experiences and by
the borrowing of theoretical ideas from studies in that field. But to the extent
that a concept is defined by a single case, such comparisons and exchanges of
ideas are structurally impeded.
A more useful definition of integration would allow for its wider applica-
tion, both across polity levels (e.g., continents, countries, regions), and across
cases within each of those levels. Andrew Gamble and Anthony Payne (1996:
257, 262), in their comparison of regional projects throughout the world,
demonstrate the manner in which a revised and identity-based conception of
integration would permit more universal geographical applicability.Thus they
find that East Asia currently manifests the least degree of regional integration,
because multiple identities impede consolidation around a single regional one.
Europe, meanwhile, shows the most potential for integration, despite some in-
ternal differences over the nature and definition of a European identity. What-
ever the particular findings of their study,however,the salient point for pur-
poses of this discussion is that a social science concept such as integration
should possess a meaning that is generalizable, and is autonomous of the vi-
cissitudes of any given case.
A second problem with the current conception of integration is that it
doesn’t even meet standards of fidelity to its own historical meaning. The idea
of European integration is, of course, hardly a new one. Political philosophers
have proposed and considered various integration schemes for at least nine
centuries, with the long-lost Roman Empire clearly a lingering inspiration for
many of them. Though the nature of these plans has varied in terms of the de-
gree and type of integration proposed, a central component to most has been
the notion of eliminating war on the continent (Squires 1994: 9), which, as ar-
gued above, would require shifts in popular identity to guarantee, short of im-
posing “peace” from on high as Napoleon and others have attempted.
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Such pacifying aspirations were clearly on the minds of those who
launched the modern European project a half century ago. And, just as clearly,
their vision of integration transcended mere institutional development or eco-
nomic consolidation. As Desmond Dinan notes, the European Union’s found-
ing father had more in mind than simply “suprastate-building” when he initi-
ated the contemporary process in 1950: “For Jean Monnet, a senior French
official who pioneered the idea of sectoral economic integration, the ECSC was
not an end in itself but part of a process that would culminate in a European fed-
eration transcending the nation-state. Such a goal was inherent in the word
‘community,’ which distinguished the new arrangement from traditional forms
of intergovernmental collaboration and international organization” (1994: 2
Sophie Duchesne and André-Paul Frognier concur that “the dream of the
Community’s founding fathers was, ultimately, to see the emergence of a Eu-
ropean identity” (1995: 193
founders was never to replace national identities entirely, the development of
agenuine polity at the European level required a strong foundation in mass
European identity. In contemporary usage, then, employing the term
integra-
tionto refer to that which, as Dinan and Duchesne and Frognier have noted,
was explicitly excluded from the original definition held by the founders, dis-
torts the traditional meaning of the term.
Indeed, conceiving of integration in the absence of identity risks produc-
ing absurd outcomes. The EMU convergence criteria, for example, put oner-
ous burdens on certain European states in order to qualify for joining the mon-
etary union, burdens that were not always welcomed by their respective
publics.
9
If the euro were to have been created at the cost of wholesale French
or Italian resentment and antipathy toward either Brussels or Germany (which
was behind the stringency requirements), could this outcome then legitimately
be called “integration”? Put a bit more lyrically,one might ask: What is inte-
gration profited if it shall gain the euro and lose the Europeans? Such a sce-
nario should remind us that economic and institutional consolidation in the ab-
sence of—or,potentially,even diminishing—a shared sense of identity cannot
plausibly be described as integration.
A third problem with current usage of the term is that integration so con-
strued is difficult to distinguish from other concepts of international relations
and comparative politics, including such notions as interdependence, treaties
and alliances, international regimes and organizations, globalization (on a re-
gional level), and state-building (again, in regional garb). Institutional integra-
tion (and its preeminent manifestation, the European Union) shares extensive
definitional overlap with each of these ideas. This is especially problematic
because, at their core, several of these other notions refer to a voluntary and
self-revokable intergovernmental relationship of autonomous constituent
units, surely
notwhat the concept of integration is meant to convey.
On the other hand, none of these notions can be construed to refer to the
sort of shared sense of identity or “we-ness” for which the term integration is
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perhaps solely useful. Reconceptualizing integration in this regard would ad-
dress each of the concerns articulated above, providing scholars with a con-
ceptual definition that is autonomous of any single case, fully distinct from
other political science concepts, and faithful to the historical and philosophi-
cal meanings long associated with its lineage. Finally, it would also have the
probable additional effect of redirecting scholarly attention toward a property
that is critical to the welfare of any polity, the question of identity.
Such a conceptualization is not without precedent in the theoretical litera-
ture on European integration, particularly its earlier variants. Karl Deutsch, for
example, alternatively defined integration as a “sense of community” in which
individuals share a commitment to resolving common social problems by
means of “peaceful change” (1953: 5), and a community as a common culture
of “stable, habitual preferences and priorities in men’s attention, and behavior,
as well as in their thoughts and feelings,” where “many of these preferences
may involve communication” (1957: 88
identity concepts into his definition of political integration, but not exclusively,
only with respect to regional integration, and without much concern for the at-
titudes of nonelites: “Political integration is the process whereby political ac-
tors in several distinct national settings are persuaded to shift their loyalties, ex-
pectations and political activities toward a new centre, whose institutions
possess or demand jurisdiction over the pre-existing national states” (1958: 16).
Moreover,the emphasis on elites in Haas’s theoretical work bore more than
apassing relationship to the reality of early European integration. Kevin Feath-
erstone (1994
vision in building the European Coal and Steel Community (the EU’soriginal
predecessor institution), and especially its executive, the High Authority,was an
elitist project. Indeed, by demonstrating the degree to which that strategic
“error” would cost the EU and its predecessors and limit their aspirations, Feath-
erstone underscores the importance of public support and identity to the concept
of integration. Articulating this critique, Monnet’s fellow federalist Altiero
Spinelli put it best: “Monnet has the great merit of having built Europe and the
great responsibility to have built it badly” (quoted in Featherstone 1994: 150).
In short, some of the original and seminal theoretical work on European in-
tegration did indeed take care to emphasize the identity question. But not
enough. And subsequent studies have focused far more on institutional devel-
opments and related themes in considering and (often implicitly) defining inte-
gration. But, in fact—I argue—identity is actually
thecrucial element in defin-
ing true political integration, and social scientists should treat it accordingly.
Identity After Modernity
A complete catalog of the reasons for studying European identity must include
mention of the fact that the identity is unique. And, more important, that it
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may represent the leading edge of a wholesale new form of political identifi-
cation, which has the potential to be to postmodernity what nationalism was to
modernity.
Given that nationalism has arguably been the most consequential political
force of the past two centuries, no exaggerated argument is necessary to make
the case for the potential significance of European identity to international and
domestic politics. If this identity—which appears to represent a sea change
from the nationalisms of the past—only obtains in Europe, that alone is a
highly consequential development. If, on the other hand, it also represents a
new form of political identification that will characterize postmodern societies
generally, its ramifications and significance are enormous in scope. This ques-
tion, and alternative interpretations of the trajectory of political identities in
Europe, are addressed in the concluding chapter. The point here is simply to
underscore the degree to which such possibilities make European identity
highly worthy of attention.
***
AsIhave argued, European identity matters for at least four reasons, ranging
from relatively narrow conceptual academic interests to implications that af-
fect the highest of high politics. Identity in Europe matters, first, because Eu-
rope is no different from any other polity with respect to the requirement of
broad positive affect necessary to sustain it, especially through more challeng-
ing chapters in its future. It matters because it is, at the end of the day, the only
true preventive for war; those who cannot differentiate themselves from oth-
ers cannot fight those others. It matters because defining integration in the ab-
sence of common identity,as has heretofore been the case, makes little con-
ceptual sense. And it matters because it may point the way to a wider form of
political identification that will come to characterize postmodern societies
everywhere.
With these philosophical justifications in hand, we may now turn to the
more prosaic but equally daunting questions of just how to measure European
identity.
Methodology and Sources
Identity questions are among the most difficult in the social sciences with
which to grapple, for reasons that are further elaborated in the next section of
this chapter. Suffice it here to say that identities are amorphous, contextually
influenced, and sometimes fluid. They operate at a subconscious level for most
individuals, and can be highly controversial when conscious. None of these
characteristics facilitate the work of scholars seeking to understand and ex-
plain identity—indeed, all of them hinder such investigations.
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Nor is an understanding of such a nuanced and recondite phenomenon
profited by reliance on a single methodological approach to the topic, a charac-
teristic that unfortunately describes most extant work on European identity. As
John Brewer and Albert Hunter (1989: 11) note, most methods bring certain
strengths
andcertain weaknesses to the topics to which they are applied. The
cogency of this argument is easy to see in considering methodological ap-
proaches to the question of European identity. Survey methodology, the princi-
pal research vehicle of prior work on the topic, provides an excellent, and vir-
tually indispensable, resource for generating broad, reliable conclusions about
apopulation and for making comparative statements about various subpopula-
tions within it. But the burdens of collecting—not to mention analyzing—
10,000 or more responses to a bank of questions require standardization of
prompts and responses to an extent that can seem almost comical, especially
where identity is concerned. Forcing respondents to characterize their affective
sentiments toward a community by selecting one of four predetermined re-
sponses to a uniform question prompt strips the resulting answers of all of the
nuance, contingency, and depth of sentiment surrounding identity issues that
were alluded to above. Anthony Smith underscores this point in the context of
ageneral critique of empirical work on the question of European identity:
Though there have been many studies of the economic organizations and po-
litical institutions of the European Community,relatively little attention has
been devoted to the cultural and psychological issues associated with Euro-
pean unification—to questions of meaning, value and symbolism. What re-
search there has been in this area has suffered from a lack of theoretical so-
phistication and tends to be somewhat impressionistic and superficial. This is
especially true of attitude studies, in which generalizations over time are de-
rived from surveys of particular groups or strata at particular moments. In
few areas is the attitude questionnaire of such doubtful utility as in the do-
main of cultural values and meanings. (1992: 57)
Smith is perhaps overly pessimistic, but he is clearly on solid ground in
pointing to the liabilities of overreliance on survey methodology in under-
standing identity questions. Yet, on the other hand, scholars opting to capture
the detail of European identity through the alternative means of conducting ex-
tended interviews on the ground (and few have so opted to date) risk either
drawing inferences that are highly suspect given the necessarily limited size of
the informant pool, or refraining from reaching such conclusions at all, for the
same reason. In their book of the same name, Brewer and Hunter (1989) pro-
pose “multimethod research” as a solution to this quandary, and this is pre-
cisely the strategy that has been employed in this study.
Both quantitative and qualitative methodological tools were applied to
four distinct data sources (in addition to a review of existing scholarly litera-
ture, and participation/observation at events listed in Appendix 8). The main
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methodological techniques employed included interviewing of elites and
nonelites, and various forms of statistical analysis. The latter are composed of
the following:
• Univariate measures of the dependent variable (e.g., means, percent-
ages); these measures are employed chiefly in Chapter 3, which ex-
plores the extent of European identification in Europe.
• Bivariate measures of the dependent variable juxtaposed against a sin-
gle independent variable (e.g., cross-tabulations, comparison of sub-
population means, Cramer’s-V measures of the general relationship be-
tween two variables); these are utilized throughout most of the chapters
that explore the empirical themes detailed below, especially Chapters 5
and 6.
• Multivariate measures of the relationship between the dependent vari-
able and multiple independent variables (e.g., ordinary least squares
and ordered probit regression analyses), in order to determine the im-
pact of each of the latter on the former, while controlling for the simul-
taneous effects of the others; these measures are utilized primarily in
Chapter 4.
These statistical techniques, as well as the interpretation of interview re-
sponses, have been applied to data gathered from four key sources: interviews
of targeted European identifiers, interviews of elites, original survey data, and
extant survey data.
Interviews of Targeted European Identifiers
Locating and interviewing European identifiers in every European Union mem-
ber-state would have been impossible, given the limitations imposed by cost and
the eleven or more languages spoken in EU countries at the time of fieldwork.
In order to circumvent these limitations, I attempted to locate venues where (1)
the broadest and most diverse possible sample of individuals—especially with
regard to nationality—would be present; and (2
group would be likely to possess relatively high levels of European identity.
Three such venues met these criteria perfectly, and interviews were conducted at
each. The first of these was the fiftieth-anniversary Congress of Europe, held in
May 1998 at The Hague, site of the original Congress, chaired by Winston
Churchill, which had launched the modern European integration movement
from the debris of World War II. Some 2,500 participants from across Europe at-
tended the conference, and interviews with as many as time permitted (about a
dozen) were conducted over the course of the weekend.
The original Congress of Europe, in 1948, had created three significant in-
stitutions: the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, and
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the College of Europe. The latter, situated in the Belgian city of Bruges, pro-
vided a second ideal site for locating a concentration of European identifiers
from across Europe. Students there participate in intense, one-year postgradu-
ate training programs in law, politics, economics, or human resources. These
students are diverse in background, if not in age (the average is twenty-five,
with the range probably between twenty and thirty), and many will become
Europe’s future leaders and staff its managerial corps. There are about 260 stu-
dents at Bruges, from thirty-five countries, who speak an average of four lan-
guages each. The campus was visited in May 1998, and a series of often
lengthy interviews was conducted with these students, in addition to one
focus-group discussion. At least one informant from each of the then-fifteen
EU member-states was interviewed, as well as several from non-EU countries.
A third venue, similar to the Hague Congress, was provided by a June
1998 gathering in London called the People’s Europe Conference. It was spon-
sored by the British government as part of a public outreach program that was
acenterpiece of its then-concluding rotating presidency of the European
Union. Roughly 1,000 people attended the conference, held on the London
School of Economics campus. These participants were also drawn from across
Europe—but with rather a large portion from the United Kingdom—and inter-
views were conducted over the brief period of the conference.
Finally, interviews were also conducted at various field locations in
Britain and Ireland. These informants—mostly European sympathizers but
also some ardent Europhobes—were identified via their association with ad-
vocacy groups, from College of Europe alumni lists, and via the “snow-
balling” referral technique. In sum, nearly eighty such targeted informants
were interviewed in May,June, and July 1998. The average length of these in-
terviews was about one hour,though many lasted two hours or longer. Appen-
dix 2 summarizes these various interview sources by location and informant
nationality.Appendix 6 presents the script that provided the basic structure for
these interviews (though departures to ask additional questions were frequent,
with the interviewer following important leads as they arose in conversation).
Interviews of Elites
In addition to interviews of key European Union figures who were well-
acquainted with matters related to European identity, two of the questions ex-
amined in this study required more extensive fieldwork, and interview data
were therefore collected from various actors well-positioned to feel the pulse
of their respective communities. In order to examine the play of a European
identity in the context of complex, multilayered, and sometimes antagonistic
competing identities, four regions in the United Kingdom were visited: Scot-
land, Wales, Northern England, and Greater London. These visits took place
at a remarkable time for Britain, as the implications of devolution were being
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felt and splashed across the front pages of newspapers, and as questions of
identity were generally quite high in people’s consciousness.
Ireland, on the other hand, provided excellent grounds for testing the in-
strumentalist hypothesis of European identity. This country has experienced
phenomenal development in the previous decades, catapulting it from the ranks
of the EU’s poor to the ranks of its wealthy, and from an agricultural country to
ahigh-technology and service economy, without much bothering to stop at in-
dustrialism in between. What is more, it is a commonly held belief (and one that
is constantly sustained by the many signs denoting EU sponsorship of various
infrastructural and other projects) that Ireland’s development has had every-
thing to do with its EU membership, by virtue of multiple factors, including
Irish access to the common market, the massive investment of Structural and
Social Funds that poured into the country, the foreign direct investment that
flowed in because of European access, and the autonomy from Britain that EU
membership has facilitated. Clearly, it was widely perceived that Ireland has
gained tremendously from joining Europe. Would this mean, as the instrumen-
talism hypothesis would predict, that the Irish would be more “European”?
To answer these questions, interviews of elites were conducted in the UK
and Ireland (and these interview data were used in conjunction with other data
sources). Altogether, more than sixty individuals from various domains—in-
cluding government, politics, business, labor, media, nongovernmental orga-
nizations, private research agencies, and academia—sat for interviews regard-
ing European identity in May, June, and July 1998. They ranged from local
reporters, to key administrators, to several members of parliament (MPs) and
members of the European Parliament (MEPs), and included both a current
member of the European Commission and a former Irish taoiseach (prime
minister). These interviews were generally held at the workplace of busy in-
formants, and tended therefore to be briefer than those with the targeted iden-
tifiers. The average duration was perhaps forty minutes, but they too could
sometimes be quite lengthy—one informant spent four and a half hours in
(quite high-quality) conversation on the topic of European identity.The names
of these elites are presented, along with their respective titles and organiza-
tions, in Appendix 1. Appendix 5 details the basic script for these conversa-
tions, though again, departures were followed wherever they appeared prom-
ising. Follow-up interviews with MEPs and staff were also conducted at the
European Parliament during the summers of 2002 and 2004.
Original Survey Data
In addition to the targeted interviews described above, the gathering of large
numbers of probable European identifiers at conferences in The Hague and Lon-
don presented an excellent opportunity to collect further data from respondents
at a volume well beyond what is generally available to qualitative researchers.
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Of particular interest was the chance to explore hypotheses and questions either
not at all or poorly addressed by existing survey data (see below)—for exam-
ple, on parental attitudes, which could be used to test the socialization hypoth-
esis. Toward this end, a two-page, thirty-eight-question written survey instru-
ment was created, with the aim of including questions probing every theme and
hypothesis of the study that was amenable to written response. English and
French versions of the survey (see Appendix 7) were distributed to participants
at the respective final mass meetings of the conferences. Additionally, notice of
the survey was posted on the electronic mailing list of Britain’s Young European
Movement, a group of pro-Europe activists of mostly college age. Twelve mem-
bers of the group requested copies of the survey by e-mail and responded to it
electronically. It is estimated that the survey required approximately twenty
minutes to complete. Altogether, 271 surveys were completed by respondents
from thirty-one countries, resulting in the Survey of European Identifiers (SEI),
anew dataset specifically tailored to respond to the questions and hypotheses
contemplated in this study.
10
Appendix 3 details respondents by number, locale,
and nationality.
Extant Survey Data
Finally, a host of existing mass survey data is available for purposes of inter-
rogating the topic of European identity.More than a hundred survey code-
books from the extensive library of datasets at the Inter-University Consor-
tium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) were downloaded and
reviewed. All datasets that possessed a valid measure of European identity
were employed in this study,as were some others that are otherwise relevant
even though they do not include such a dependent-variable question. Appen-
dix 4 lists these surveys, and the respective dates they were fielded. The most
extensive and carefully administered of these are the series of Eurobarometer
surveys, which were initially deployed in the early 1970s, subsequently be-
came adopted by the EU as an in-house project, and are now fielded at least
every six months. Eurobarometer datasets always include all member-states of
the EU in their sample, and sometimes a handful of other countries as well.
Surveyed countries vary somewhat across the other datasets, as does the ap-
parent quality of the administration.
11
The surveys analyzed herein all polled
widely, however, with almost every sample at or above 10,000 cases. In total,
260,143 respondents from twenty existing survey datasets were examined (of
whom 12,213 are duplicates from one survey, Eurobarometer 36-0, which has
two dependent-variable questions); Chapter 4 takes up this analysis.
Supplied national weights were applied wherever possible, so that sam-
ples from each country would be proportionate to their respective popula-
tions.
12
Where necessary, and as documented in the chapters that follow, new
variables were constructed from permutations or combinations of existing
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data, or from external data, in order to operationalize various concepts in ques-
tion. In addition to standard demographic and attitudinal data, all employed
surveys capture a number of respondent attitudes and attributes that provide
insight into political identification at various levels of community in Europe
(i.e., local, regional, national, and European).
Three basic dependent-variable question formats were employed across
these various surveys, with a permutation of one of them representing a fourth
format:
•
Format One: The first format asks respondents, “Which of these geo-
graphical groups would you say you belong to first of all?” Respondents could
choose among their town, their region, their country, Europe, and the world as
awhole. A follow-up question asked them to specify their second choice from
the same list. This format is found in Eurobarometers 6, 10A, and 12, the three
European Communities Studies, and the three World (and European
Surveys. For most of the analyses undertaken in this book, the two-question re-
sponses have been recoded into a single constructed ordinal variable, in which
the omission of Europe as a mentioned choice is coded “0,” the selection of
Europe as the second choice is coded “1,” and the selection of Europe as the
first choice is coded “2.” In the case of the 1999–2001 World and European
Values Survey only, a fourth category is added, in which European identity can
also be actively rejected (as opposed to just omitted) by respondents.
•
Format Two: The second identity-question format asks respondents,
“Does the thought ever occur to you that you are not only [nationality] but also
aEuropean? Does this happen often, sometimes, or never?” This format is em-
ployed in Eurobarometers 27, 30, 31, 33, and 37-0.
•
Format Three: For the third format, Eurobarometer 41-1 poses to re-
spondents the same question described in Format Two, but asks them to locate
their response on a 10-point scale—with “1” representing “Not at all also Eu-
ropean” and “10” representing “Very much also European”—rather than
choosing among the three ordinal responses.
•Format Four: Finally,in the fourth format, inquiries are made in sepa-
rate questions about the respondents’ feelings toward the same polities/
geographic levels listed under Format One (town, region, country, etc.). For
purposes of this study, the key question posed is the fourth in this series, ask-
ing, “How close [attached] do you feel to . . . Europe [or] the European
Union?” Respondents could choose from “Not close [attached] at all,” “Not
very close [attached],” “Close [attached],” and “Very close [attached].” This
format appears in the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 1995 survey
on national identity, and in Eurobarometers 36-0, 51-0, 54-1, 56-3, and
58-1.
13
***
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This study thus draws from a variety of sources, and types of sources, in order
to examine a series of questions related to European identity. This multimethod-
ological, multisource approach benefits the research in at least three ways. First,
the sheer volume of sources improves the credibility of the conclusions reached,
in the same way that increasing the number of respondents to a survey boosts
statistical significance. Second, drawing on multiple types of sources is critical
for the examination of a phenomenon as complex as is political identity. The
combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches within a single study is
especially felicitous to understanding the subtleties of the topic, permitting an
analytical triangulation upon the targeted question. And finally, the use of a
broad number of datasets is also helpful, because it permits examination of
trends and changes in patterns of European identification over time.
Obstacles to the Study of Identity
Questions of identity are at once among the most recondite and recalcitrant in
the social sciences. There are not often votes to count, nor commercial trans-
actions to tally,nor even much visible manifestation whatsoever, short of
sporting matches and militarized disputes, though scholars have used all of
these in attempts to operationalize the concept. Even the meaning of identity
itself—and the boundaries and content of its various incarnations—can be
controversial, let alone theories purporting to explain it. Moreover, simply re-
ferring to identity as an “it” arguably constitutes a grave conceptual error, for
agreat deal of evidence suggests that identities are multiple and simultaneous,
and not even restricted to the political/geographical kind at that. Identities can
also be moving targets, changing as does the individual’s current context or
life experience, and thus increasing the difficulty the researcher faces in char-
acterizing them.
Additionally,while scholars and others may give a good deal of thought
to identity questions, for many people—almost certainly the vast majority—
such questions rarely migrate to the level of consciousness. Though their iden-
tities may even be quite strongly held, these sentiments tend to reside in the
subconscious, or in a thousand subtle manifestations of everyday life. And fi-
nally, apart from all these issues, there is the very difficult pragmatic problem
facing the social scientist as to how something as complex, nuanced, and
sometimes controversial as identity can be operationalized and measured in
any meaningful way.
Though these obstacles, discussed in further detail below, are daunting,
especially in their collective impact, they do not preclude researchers from in-
vestigating this topic and generating interesting and reliable conclusions. They
do, however, constitute serious caveats that any consumer of identity scholar-
ship would be wise to consider.
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Perhaps the most significant of these caveats is that identities are not sin-
gular and exclusive, as the empirical work based on Eurobarometer data and
other analyses clearly demonstrates. Not only might individuals maintain af-
fective ties to several levels of political organization (e.g., municipalities, re-
gions, nations, states, supranational regions, the world) simultaneously, but
they may also do the same with respect to associations from other social do-
mains as well (e.g., family, religion, ethnicity, race), with some of the latter at
times even conflicting with or eclipsing political affinities.
14
Nor, for many in-
dividuals, are identity constellations necessarily static over the course of a life-
time. Charles Tilly makes the point eloquently:
Any actor deploys multiple identities, at least one per tie, role, network, and
group to which the actor is attached. That others often typify and respond to
an actor by singling out one of those multiple identities—race, gender, class,
job, religious affiliation, national origin, or something else—by no means es-
tablishes the unity, or even the tight connectedness, of those identities. That
sickness or zealotry occasionally elevates one identity to overwhelming
dominance of an actor’s consciousness and behavior, furthermore, does not
gainsay the prevalence of multiple identities among people who are neither
sick nor zealots. It actually takes sustained effort to endow actors with uni-
tary identities. (1998: 4; see also Smith 1992: 59)
Fortunately,the fact that people maintain complex identity structures does
notpreclude measurement of levels and changes with respect to any one or
more of these identities; but it does suggest caution, especially in trying to
affix onto individuals a single identity label.
As indicated above, there are also very good reasons to believe that iden-
tities are far less constant than, say,anationalist demagogue or a primordial-
ist-oriented scholar would care to admit. Indeed, a good deal of evidence—in-
cluding much collected in the field for this study—suggests that political
identities are fluid and contextual rather than static and fixed. One who is con-
sidered a Glaswegian in Edinburgh, for example, may well be a Lowlander in
Inverness, a Scot in London, British (or,perish the thought, English) in Spain,
and a European in Africa. Nor are these purely ascribed identities either; many
informants interviewed for this study reported alterations in their own feelings
of who they were, depending on their location at the time. Dormant identity-
related feelings may also be stimulated by perceptions or events, not least of
which include sporting matches pitting local or national teams against one
other.
15
Indeed, fieldwork for this project twice took place during the height of
the quadrennial World Cup football competition, the emotive power of which
should not be underestimated, deeply affecting as it does more than just the
“hooligans” who rioted across France during the 1998 tournament.
In part, recognition of this question invokes the debate between “primor-
dialists” (e.g., Geertz 1973; Smith 1992) and “constructivists” (e.g., Anderson
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1991; Judt 1996; Gamble and Payne 1996b; Hoover 1975)
16
on the very nature
of identity itself, and particularly on the extent to which it is malleable (see
Chapter 2 for further discussion of the dispute between these approaches). Yet
the issue of context extends beyond the scope of this debate, for even if the pri-
mordialists are correct in asserting the relative fixity of identity, as long as one
is still willing to admit to the existence of multiple simultaneous identities—
something seemingly rather difficult to deny—the probability of their relative
flux remains high. Moreover, these multiple identities and their modulation as
aresult of contextual changes are precisely what informants frequently describe
in discussions about their own identities, as demonstrated above. It would seem
clear, in short, that identities respond to changes in stimuli and environment, of-
fering an additional challenge to scholars who would seek to understand and
explain them.
There are other special challenges, as well, that are attendant to the study
of identity in general, and to a focus on European identity in particular. One of
the most vexing of these concerns the difficulties involved in attempting to ex-
tract thoughtful responses from informants on subjects to which they may
have given little conscious thought. While identities matter to scholars, the in-
dividuals who possess them may traverse entire lifetimes without much con-
sideration of their own identity, or of the idea that there is even anything to
consider at all—that identities, in other words, might be anything other than
simply immutable patrimony.Identities may be enormously salient for a given
individual, and yet rarely enter that person’s consciousness, perhaps, in part,
precisely because of their ubiquity. To the extent that they are the products of
affective, and not cognitive, psychological processes, obtaining data useful for
purposes of generating meaningful insights into identity may be extremely dif-
ficult, and perhaps impossible. Doing so under the constraints imposed by a
mass survey methodology only exacerbates this difficulty.As Oskar Nieder-
mayer and Richard Sinnott note:
Wecan only agree that measuring such things as diffuse and specific orien-
tations towards internationalized governance, sense of community and Euro-
pean identity, democratic values, and policy orientations is problematic.
Some of these problems are inherent in research on mass culture and public
opinion; for example, problems arising from the artificiality of the interview
situation. In cases where the issues concerned are of low salience, there is al-
ways the danger that the interaction involved in the interview situation gen-
erates an attitude which would not otherwise have existed. Over and above
this, there is the general problem of validity: do the data tell us what we want
to know? Are the answers to particular questions valid indicators of the par-
ticular attitude we want to measure? (1995: 3)
Another obstacle to the study of political identity concerns the distinction—
one that is often lost in the popular and sometimes even scholarly press—
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between nation and state, or more generally, between a community and its asso-
ciated institutions. It is certainly clear from the historical record that these two
are intertwined, and it is also clear that institutions often play pivotal roles in the
fostering and strengthening of identities.
17
Nevertheless, it is important for
scholars, at least, to maintain a distinction between the two concepts. It is far less
clear, however, that individuals on the ground do so, and this is especially the
case where Europe is concerned. Indeed, the very term
Europeis probably far
more likely to evoke in the minds of Europeans the idea of the European Union
(i.e., Europe’s “state”) than it is to conjure up images of a single people with a
shared set of interests, attributes, and destiny (a European “nation”
degree, conflation of these concepts is inevitable, but nevertheless needs to be
recognized and guarded against. The two concepts are quite different, precisely
to the extent that (once again employing the national analogue) a scholar of
French identity, for example, would not wish to equate that concept with the
French state and its many vicissitudes and multiplicity of regimes.
Finally, apart from the conceptual, theoretical, and epistemological prob-
lems alluded to above, there are some very pragmatic concerns that re-
searchers must face when grappling with identity questions. Chief among
these is the problem of constructing the most appropriate dependent-variable
measure. As previously indicated, four survey-question formats have already
been applied in the European case, and arguments could be advanced as to
why one is superior or not with respect to the others, or even that an entirely
different measure is required to accurately represent the concept in question.
Is a format that requires respondents to compare their degree of European
identity to that of other identities preferable to a nonrelative one in which the
former is simply evaluated in its own right? Is it preferable that respondents
should be able to describe their feelings along a continuous scale, as opposed
to having to conform their response to fit within one of several fixed categor-
ical options?
The answers to these and related questions are unclear,and perhaps im-
possible ever to discern. Moreover,it is arguably preferable to have multiple
measures of any phenomenon of interest, rather than relying on a single con-
struction, despite the risk of having to interpret potential variances in re-
sponses to the multiple formats (as is precisely the situation with European
identity—see, especially, Chapter 3). This interpretation problem becomes es-
pecially daunting when, as is again the case with European identity, question
formats tend to be aggregated in time, such that one format appears in a cer-
tain decade, only to be replaced by other formats in subsequent decades. This
makes it difficult for the analyst to determine whether changes in identity
measures reflect actual changes in identity over time, or simply the change in
question format, or some of both. One likely effective solution to this
quandary would be to place each of the question formats on a single survey,
thus allowing comparison of responses taken from the same individuals at the
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same moment in time. With the exception of two questions posed on Euro-
barometer 36-0, however, this has not been done in a mass survey to date, but
all three main question formats were included on the SEI original field instru-
ment that was distributed in support of this study, for precisely this reason.
Thus, at least some highly circumscribed evidence may be analyzed to deter-
mine how these various dependent-variable measures relate.
The foregoing discussion suggests that the obstacles to studying identity—
and especially European identity—are many and formidable. It is not meant to
suggest that the task is impossible, but rather that it requires considerable care
to be executed meaningfully and reliably. This care must not only be applied in
interpreting findings from empirical analyses of the data, but long before that
as well, during the stages at which such empirical work is designed. Above all,
the caveats discussed above should underscore the risk inherent in relying on a
single data source or a single methodological approach to this most complex of
phenomena.
Structure of the Book
This first chapter has introduced the themes of the project, the rationale for ex-
amining the topic, the scope of the study, and its methodologies and limita-
tions. In Chapter 2, the stage is further set for making an original contribution
to what is known about the topic by reviewing the idea of European identity
asan idea, looking at its history, asking whether a shared identity across a con-
tinent of diverse nations and languages is even possible, and if so, what sub-
stantive elements might be employed in constituting it. The chapter also exam-
ines some efforts that have been made to foster identification with Europe,
both private and EU-sponsored.
The book next turns to its core task, addressing five key empirical questions
concerning the phenomenon of European identity.Of initial and obvious impor-
tance is the extent of European identification; Chapter 3 establishes that there are
in fact a considerable number of Europeans who possess some or even a great
deal of European identity. The second question concerns whether, to what ex-
tent, and how identity changes over time, which Chapter 3 also addresses. The
third question—perhaps the most central of the six empirical topics—asks,
“Who Are the ‘Europeans’?”—or more precisely, what factors cause levels of
identification with Europe to vary from individual to individual? A wide range
of hypothesized answers to this question are tested in Chapter 4. These hypothe-
ses have been organized into four general categories, according to the type of
factor invoked by the posited relationship:
• those hypotheses that resort to
attributionalfactors (e.g., socioeco-
nomic status, age) to explain varying levels of European identification;
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• those that consider the relationship of other attitudinalfactors (e.g.,
ideology, postmaterialism) to the dependent variable;
• those that refer to certain social-psychologicalprocesses and character-
istics (e.g., socialization, political efficacy) to address the question;
• and those that are derived from political-culturalaspects (e.g., nation-
ality, religion).
The fourth empirical question of this book probes the meaning of a Euro-
pean identity for those who possess it. This discussion, in Chapter 5, seeks to
determine the nature and content attendant to this rather unique creature of the
political animal kingdom, the supranational identity. Finally, a related fifth
question asks how deep this identity runs, and explores whether European
identity is fleeting and peripheral even among those who possess it, whether it
is capable of producing the sort of emotions and behaviors for which other
forms of identity (e.g., especially, nationalism) are notorious, or whether it is
something in-between or of a different character altogether. These questions
are addressed in Chapter 6.
Concluding the book, Chapter 7 summarizes the findings of this analysis
and considers their wider implications. In particular,the discussion seeks to
grapple with the character of political identity, broadly construed, and to con-
sider its place in a world that is quite likely experiencing wholesale structural
change at the political, economic, and cultural levels, perhaps including the re-
placement of the Westphalian order of autonomous (nation-
new system. This discussion considers whether the entire notion of political
identification—a phenomenon of extreme consequence and widely recognized
as a major defining characteristic of modernity—will change beyond recogni-
tion in a postmodern world.
Much has been written about the deterioration of the sovereign state. Can
the nation long remain unchanged in such a context? What are the implications
of globalization and other contemporary developments for how and whether
people identify themselves today? The final chapter of the book explores
themes such as these, and presents the argument that political identity may be
soreconfigured and so diluted in our postmodern world as to no longer be rec-
ognizable in the form we’ve grown familiar with over the past two centuries
or more. This seems true in Europe, at least, which may be the harbinger for
crucial changes coming on a far broader scale.
Notes
1. Postmodernity must be clearly distinguished from postmodernism for purposes
of this study.Ido not employ,and remain only partially convinced of the utility of, a
postmodernist epistemology, agenda, or style of analysis. In any case, I seek here only
29Introduction
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to distinguish between two historical phases or, more properly, two sociocultural
modes. For Western societies, modernity can be dated from the Enlightenment, if not
the Renaissance, until late in the twentieth century when, among other developments,
industrialism gives way to information-based economies, nuclear families to more
complex relationship webs, and nationalism to new forms of political identification, in-
cluding that which is the subject of this book. More broadly, even assuming that the
process of cultural development is monolithically sequential and unidirectional (which
it may very well not be), other (non-Western) cultures may experience transitions from
one mode to the next at various different chronological moments (some are still transi-
tioning
tomodernity), which is why these are better understood as modes than periods.
In any case, I employ the term postmodernherein in a very literal sense—referring to
asocietal condition following the condition of modernity—rather than as a set of epis-
temological assumptions or political commitments that collectively inform a particular
style of inquiry, analysis, or discussion.
2. Paul Howe (1995: 32
begun.
3. See, for example, Halecki 1963: 372; Delanty 1998: 39; Llobera 1993: 78;
Papcke 1992: 66; Reif 1993: 131; Laffan 1996: 82; Slater 1982.
4.Actually, it is premature, even today, to speak of a real European body politic.
The fact that elections for the European Parliament tend to be contested over national
issues is only the most telling political indicator of this status. In terms of mass politi-
cal consciousness, Europe is probably better described as twenty-seven national poli-
ties vaguely and tenuously joined together in a far-offplace called Brussels. This could
change somewhat, however, now that the euro has become entrenched and even pow-
erful, or, to choose another example, should Europeans be driven together by a grow-
ing transatlantic breach.
5. Of course, this was no coincidental accident of history.Experiments in interna-
tional organization tend to follow disastrous meltdowns of the existing form. The Con-
cert of Europe, the League of Nations, the United Nations, the Bretton Woods system,
and the European integration project can all be understood as fitting this pattern. Nev-
ertheless, the rapidity of this swing from full-blown militarized conflict to nearly un-
precedented institutional embrace and shared sovereignty is breathtaking, and clearly
left some participants behind the transitional curve. Chapter 4 describes one particular,
and poignant, manifestation of this effect at the College of Europe during its first years
of operation.
6.Use of the term
integrationis immediately problematic, especially in light of
the arguments advanced in this book. Integration has heretofore been widely—and, I
suggest, somewhat inappropriately—used to refer both to the processes and events that
have taken place in Western Europe since 1952, and to the study of those processes.
The concept of integration as defined in this book, on the other hand, concerns the
question of popular identities. Integrated political associations are those in which there
exists “a we-feeling among a group of people—they are a political entity that works to-
gether and will likely share a common political fate and destiny” (Easton 1965: 332),
irrespective of levels of institutional development. In the European context, this means
creating a political space “where men and women of every country will think as much
of being European as of belonging to their native land and wherever they go in this
wide domain they will truly feel ‘here I am at home!’” (Winston Churchill, quoted in
Hewstone 1986: 202). While the avoidance of standard usages of the term
integration
iscertainly in the interest of semantic clarity, doing so would nevertheless require some
rather inelegant (and frequently reiterated) syntax. Therefore, without prejudice to the
arguments presented herein, the term is used in both its “correct” and “incorrect” mean-
30 The Europeans
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ings, with the hope that the intent in each case emerges apparent. While the former con-
cerns the development of a common identity, the latter (and common
chiefly to institutional development and elaboration, as well as to the economic unifi-
cation and harmonization that continue apace in Europe.
7. This is true, moreover, in at least two senses. Apart from the conditions de-
scribed here, it has also been argued by some scholars (e.g., Bueno de Mesquita 1981
that alliance partners are actually
morelikely to fight one another than they are to fight
others.
8. Though not short enough of war to prevent Calvin Trillin (1997: 6
ing the issue in his poem “European Unification: The Short Version”:
Those nations will unite as one—
The Europe that’s supposed to be.
The euro is the final touch
Unless it causes World War III.
The poem, fortunately, is meant as humor. But, like all such humor, it is of course
only funny to the extent that it bears some resemblance to reality. (European Unifica-
tion, The ShortVersion—Copyright ©1997 by Calvin Trillin. Originally appeared in
The Nation. This usage granted by permission of Lescher & Lescher, Ltd. All rights re-
served.)
9.Truly a picture that spoke a thousand words, The Economist’s cover photo of
rioting French opponents to monetary union under the headline “France Prepares for
EMU” (1995a) well illustrates this point.
10. In order to maintain comparability to Eurobarometer and other existing sur-
veys, however, and to avoid the prickly question of who should be considered a Euro-
pean (respondents from Russia? Macedonia? Turkey?), only those 227 respondents
from EU-15 countries are included in the analyses herein.
11. Many multinational surveys are fielded separately in each country by local
firms, and thus coding and quality of reporting can vary.
12. In some cases, these weights had to be modified or created. In all cases, only
data from EC/EU member-state respondents (at the time of the survey) have been in-
cluded. In the analyses presented in Chapter 4, mean values were substituted for all
missing independent variable data in order to maximize the number of included cases
in regression models. For Eurobarometer 41-1, this strategy was also employed for the
interval-level dependent variable; for all other datasets (with ordinal-level dependent
variables, and analyzed using the ordered probit procedure), missing dependent-vari-
able cases were dropped, thus maintaining the appropriate number of cut-points in the
model.
13. In the latter two surveys only, the question prompt asked respondents how at-
tached they were to “the European Union,” as opposed to “Europe.” Conceptually, of
course, these are very different animals, and it is quite conceivable that an individual
could, for instance, possess very strong attachments to Europe while loathing the Eu-
ropean Union. Whether respondents make this distinction to the extent that these two
surveys should be excluded on the basis of not being true measures of European iden-
tity is a judgment call to be made by the researcher and his or her audience. For pur-
poses of the analyses in this book, they have been considered sufficiently similar ap-
proximations of the concept to warrant inclusion. It should be noted, however, that the
resulting data (see Table 3.1) suggest some possible degree of distinction between the
two ideas in the minds of respondents.
14. In Britain, one survey asked respondents, “What is important to your sense of
self-identity?” Britishness and English, Scottish, or Welsh nationalism ranked below
31Introduction
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six other factors, such as “My principles and values,” “My interests,” “Being a parent,”
and “My circle of friends” (Leonard 1997: 23).
15. One informant described how he felt German when in London, European
when in the United States, and Western when visiting Latin America, while a second
informant inverted the effect, saying “At home [in Ireland], I feel proud to be Euro-
pean, while away from home, I feel proud to be Irish.” And, illustrating the contingent
effect that events (as opposed to location
also felt very European in America, but also felt German when the French were fight-
ing for the presidency of the European Central Bank.
16. Crawford Young (1993: 21–25
these two political identity approaches, plus a third: instrumentalism.
17. Indeed, rather than the idealized model in which the nation gives birth to the
state, there may be as many instances in history of the state creating the nation. For
Arjun Appadurai, the nation is “the ideological alibi of the territorial state” (1996: 159
A more tangible application of this notion may be found in the comment attributed to
nationalist activist Massimo D’Azeglio, following the creation of his country: “Now
that we have made Italy, we need to make Italians.”
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2
The Idea of European Identity
For a thousand years or more, men have dreamed of uniting Europe. What stave
and scimitar, chariot and battering rams, horse and Heinkel, Caesar, Charle-
magne, Henry, Louis, Napoleon, Briand and Hitler failed each in his own way to
achieve, what Yalta failed to prevent, may yet be voted into being by the peoples
of the Continent. Where the sword failed the ploughshare, the microchip and the
ballot box may, indeed must succeed. An empire without an emperor, this conti-
nental union will be the first to come into being without the use of force.
—David Lewis (1993: 12)
THE PROJECT OF EUROPEAN integration is a relatively new phenomenon, as
polities go, but the idea behind it is not. Political philosophers have been con-
templating the perceived need or desirability of unifying Europe for centuries,
as the following pages document. This chapter seeks to place the idea of Eu-
ropean integration and the related notion of shared European identity into their
historical and theoretical contexts. The chapter treats four main themes related
to these core subjects: the history of the idea of European unification, the the-
oretical possibility of a European identity,the potential constituent elements of
such an identity,and efforts that have been made to foster European identifi-
cation. Together with Chapter 1, these discussions set the stage for the empir-
ical investigations that follow.
The Idea of Europe
The earliest viable appearance of either the polity or the idea of a unified Eu-
rope emerged, most historians agree, with the efforts of the Franks in the sev-
enth and eighth centuries, culminating with the crowning of Charlemagne as
emperor of Rome in 800
C.E.
1
(Rome was more of a global than a strictly Eu-
ropean power, and no one living on the continent during the empire’s rule
would have considered him- or herself European.) The Franks were con-
sciously attempting to unify the continent, in the face of its increasing frag-
mentation, and in fact were able to do so within limitations.
2
Coincidentally
(or perhaps not?), the borders of what was the Frankish state are nearly an
identical match to the region occupied by “The Six” (France, Germany, Italy,
33
Green_Complete.qxd 1/25/07 10:52 AM Page 33

the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), those countries that launched
contemporary integration efforts with the European Coal and Steel Commu-
nity of 1952.
Rivals to the emperor and to the newly emerging states, the popes of the
Middle Ages also advanced the idea of European unity as an ideological
weapon in their battle for supreme secular political power to complement their
religious authority. Rallying around the notion of common Eastern and Islamic
enemies, the Crusades marked the first instance of Europe presenting a united
front, under papal leadership. Later, the idea of European identity flagged, as
economic decline, the Plague, and division within the church took their toll,
but it would once again be revived by all sides in power disputes among the
church, the emperor, and national monarchs. Pierre Dubois, for instance, is-
sued a pamphlet in 1306 calling for European unity for the purposes of launch-
ing another crusade, though in fact it was little more than a plan to unite Eu-
rope under the king of France. Yet it contained elements of supranationalism,
especially related to dispute resolution, which are still visible in today’s insti-
tutions. In the end, though, the Europe of the medieval period was more a cul-
tural fact than a political one. Increasingly, Europeans were coming to share
institutions and cultural attributes, such as universities, feudalism, and
chivalry, but not common governance.
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 revitalized plans for European unity,
and a nascent identity was formed from distinction against the Turkish
“Other.” Heikki Mikkeli notes, “there appears to be no doubt that the term ‘Eu-
rope’ began to acquire more and more emotional charge in the period follow-
ing the fall of Constantinople. In literary circles at least, Europe was conceived
of as a unit with positive connotation, and one worth defending against outside
enemies” (1998: 34). In particular,aseries of proposals for peace within
Christendom were advanced in order to facilitate a unified response to the
Turkish challenge.
But little came of these, and Europe would shortly thereafter be more di-
vided than ever by its internal religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Anotable solution to these was advanced by France’sDuke of Sully
in 1638, who envisaged a supranational parliament to resolve disputes be-
tween states. William Penn and other Quakers also began advancing similar
European peace plans in the period shortly thereafter. Another, by the French
Abbé de Saint-Pierre, stimulated widespread debate beginning in the early
eighteenth century, including a midcentury “realist” critique by Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, who found the plan for supranational governance naive. Still later,
Immanuel Kant and other German philosophers would join the quest for a
workable European peace plan. They failed to achieve their goal, of course,
and shortly after the publication of Rousseau’s response to the Abbé, the con-
tinent was deeply convulsed again by the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars.
34 The Europeans
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and they fixed me with seven pairs of eyes, round brown eyes, rather like
brandy-balls—I suppose they couldn't all have had brown eyes, but the
general effect was of brandy-balls—silently taking me in. I heard the elder
telling them how honoured they were to have the minister's wife as teacher;
then I was left with them. Later on, when I got to know the girls, I
sometimes laughed at the terror of the first Sunday. They were the nicest
girls, really, gentle and kind; but that day they seemed to me inhuman little
owls. They told me the lesson—one of the parables—but my mind was a
blank, and I could think of no comment to make over it. I stumbled and
stuttered, every moment getting more hot and ashamed, and finally went
home, feeling, in spite of my sealskin coat and prune bonnet, the most
miserably inadequate minister's wife that had ever tried to reign in a manse,
scourged as with whips by the thought of the late Lord Clarke's niece. What
a comfort your father always was! He made it seem all right in a twinkling,
assured me that I needn't teach a class unless I liked, but vowed that if I did
no one could teach it half so well; and as for the late Lord Clarke's niece, he
had never seen her, but he was sure she was a long-faced woman, with no
sense of humour."
"I know," said Ann. "Father was always singularly comforting. When we
hurt ourselves, you and Marget invariably took the gloomiest view, looked
up medical books and prophesied dire results. Once I got my thumb badly
crushed and the nail torn off while swinging on a see-saw. Marget at once
said 'lock-jaw!' I hadn't a notion what that was, but it had an eerily fatal
sound, and I crept away to Father's study to try and lose my fears in a book.
Presently Father came in, and I rolled out of the arm-chair I had cuddled
into and ran to show him my bandaged hand.
"'Oh, Father!' I cried, 'will I take lock-jaw and will I die?' I can see him
now, all fresh from the cold air, laughing at me, yet sorry for me, lifting me
up in his strong arms, saying, 'Poor wifie, were they frightening you? Lock-
jaw? No. Let's look at it. Yes, I see the nail's off. Had we better get a
celluloid one till the new one grows? Try and keep a cloth on it, like a good
lassie, and it will soon be well.' And then peace slid into my soul, and I sat
on his knee and he told me a story. I can quite see what a wonderful
minister my father was. It was that air of surety, of steadfastness, that gave
people such a lift, and that firm, comforting hand that touched things so

gently. Robbie had the same; so had the little lad.... But to go back to
Inchkeld and the congregation——"
"Yes. It was a very flourishing congregation. Every Sunday it crammed
the little church, and sometimes forms had to be brought in. The goodness
of the people was almost destroying. They wanted to share everything they
had with us. Constantly such things as a hare, or pheasants, or a 'black bun,'
or several cakes of shortbread would arrive—and we had so few to eat
them. Inchkeld was a sociable place, and I had lots of callers and no lack of
opportunities for wearing my wedding finery. Those weren't the days of
afternoon tea. Cake and wine were served in the drawing-room with the
white and gilt wall-paper and the red rep furniture—neat squares of
wedding-cake in the brand new silver cake-basket."
"Oooh!" groaned Ann. "Can't I see those squares of wedding-cake! I
hope no hungry children ever came to see you. Do you remember taking me
as a small child to call on some newly married people in Burntisland?—I
think I was taken because I was a firebrand at home—and tea came in on a
silver tray, all prinked out with ruffly d'oyleys—scones about the size of
half-crowns and a frightfully newly married shining cake-basket, holding
inches of wedding-cake. I was passionately hungry, and could have eaten
the whole show and never known it; but I sat on a stool and nibbled a scone,
and tried not to make any crumbs, and then I was handed the cake-basket.
We had been taught always to take the bit nearest us, and the bit nearest me
—alas!—was the smallest bit in the basket, with only the minutest fragment
of almond icing and sugar attached. I would fain have snatched two bits, but
my upbringing was too strong for me, and I took the fragment. It was far the
most delicious thing I had ever tasted. Surely, I thought, this must be what
angels eat, and for the first time in my faulty life I wished to be an angel. It
was over in a second, though I ate it crumb by crumb and kept the sugar for
the last; and then I sat and gazed hungrily for another bit; but no one
noticed me, no one brought the shining cake-basket again within my reach.
I don't think that newly married wife could ever have come to any good—a
woman who hadn't the sense to feed a hungry child! You think I spoil our
children, but it's because I remember the awfulness of having a very little of
a good thing."

"I remember that visit to Burntisland," Mrs. Douglas said. "I had to take
you into a shop on the way home and buy you biscuits. Your father wanted
some, too—a handed-round tea was no use to him; he liked a breakfast-cup
filled several times. I don't think I was ever guilty of starving children of
wedding-cake. I got surfeited with it myself, and a big family from across
the way used to come in to help us away with all that was left over from our
parties. We were glad to get things eaten up in those days. Both my own
mother and your father's mother constantly sent us boxes of eatables as if
we had been on a desert island instead of in a city of shops—great mutton-
hams, and haggis, and noble Selkirk bannocks; I was afraid of them coming
to our little household. How glad I would have been to see them in later
years, when I had growing children to feed! But the kind hands that packed
them were still.... We could entertain only in a very small way in our very
small house, but we were asked to quite a lot of dinner-parties. They were
evenings of dread to me. I was so shockingly bad at making conversation. I
blushed fiercely when anyone spoke to me, and must have presented an
appearance of such callowness that I provoked pity in the hearts of kindly
people. One dear old lady said to me, 'My dear, have you cut your wisdom
teeth yet?' ... In September Mark was born. It was prayer-meeting night, and
Maggie Ann carelessly let the cat eat my canary. They didn't tell me about it
until I asked why I wasn't hearing him singing. Mark was a tiny, delicate
baby, but he was perfect in our eyes. We looked with distaste at large fat
children, who made poor little Mark look so puny and fragile, and told each
other that they were 'coarse,' and that we were glad our baby wasn't like
that. When I was able to travel we set off with our precious new possession
to Etterick. Agatha had been with us most of the summer, but my mother
didn't come; she liked to stay in her own house and welcome us there."
"A most detached woman, my grandmother," said Ann.
"You are rather like her, Ann," said Mrs. Douglas.
"Yes, I have the same aversion to staying in other people's houses, and I
share her dislike to the casual kissing that so many people indulge in—
people who are mere acquaintances. You should only kiss really great
friends at really serious times, and then it means something."

Mrs. Douglas laughed. "Nobody ever took a liberty with your
grandmother. My father was utterly different, the most approachable of
men. People were always asking favours from him; he liked them to. He
didn't care how much he went out of his way to help anyone, and his hand
was never out of his pocket."
"You must be exactly like grandfather. I think you are one of the very
few people left living in the world who do take trouble about their fellow-
mortals. The rest of us are too selfish to bother."
"I like to be kind," said Mrs. Douglas, "but I don't take any credit for
being kind. It's just my nature to want to give. The people who hate to give
and yet make themselves do it are the ones who ought to be commended. It
has always been my great desire to add a little to the happiness of the world,
and I would never forgive myself if I thought I had added by one jot or tittle
to the pain."
"I am very sure you haven't done that," Ann assured her. "You are the
very kindest of funny little bodies, and when I call you 'Ella Wheeler
Wilcox' I don't really mean it. But you must admit that it is often very
vicarious kindness, and the burden of it falls on your family. Oh, the
deplorable people who have come to us 'for a stop' because you thought
they were lonely and neglected! Of course, they were, but it was because it
almost killed people to entertain them; there's a reason for everything in this
world. But what a shame to laugh at your efforts! Never mind. There are
those
'Who, passing through Baca's vale,
Therein do dig up wells,'
and you are one of them. But to go on with your Life. Didn't you leave
Inchkeld quite soon after Mark was born? I know Robbie and Jim and I
thought it very hard lines that he should have been born in a lovely old
historic city, while the rest of us had to see the light first amid coalpits and
linoleum factories. Mark never let us forget it, either."
"Mark was two months old when we left Inchkeld. When the Kirkcaple
congregation called your father he felt he ought to go. Oh! but we were a

thoughtless couple. It never gave me a thought to leave the people who had
been so good to us. I just took everybody's kindness as a matter of course. I
was too young to realise how rare such kindness is, and their interest in the
baby, and their desire to have us stay in Inchkeld seemed to me no more
than natural. I was amused and pleased at the thought of going to a new
place and a new house. You can hardly get changes enough when you are
eighteen. In middle life one's most constant prayer is that God will let
things remain as they are. What was that you were reading me the other
night? I think it was from Charles Lamb."
Ann leant back in her chair and pulled a little green book from a
bookshelf. "This, I think it was," she said, and read:
"'I am content to stand still at the age to which I am arrived; I, and my
friends, to be no younger, no richer, no handsomer. I do not want to be
wearied by age, or drop like mellow fruit, as they say, into the grave....'"
"Poor Charles Lamb!" said Mrs. Douglas, shaking her head. "There are
times when one would like to stand still, where we seem to reach a pleasant,
rich plain and are at our ease, and friends are many, and life is full of zest....
I don't know whether it was wise to leave Inchkeld. Your grandfather
Douglas always regretted it. When he visited us at Kirkcaple one remark he
always made was: 'A great pity Mark ever left Inchkeld.' We used to wait
for it and the funny way he had of clearing his throat after every sentence."
CHAPTER VI
November is a poor time to go to a new place, and Kirkcaple certainly
looked a most unattractive part of the world when we arrived on a cold, wet
afternoon. 'The queer-like smell' from the linoleum factories, the sea
drearily grey and strange to my inland eyes, the drive through narrow
streets and up the steep Path, past great factories and mean houses, until we
reached the road, knee-deep in mud, where the Manse stood, combined to

depress me to the earth. It might have been infinitely worse. I saw that in
the light of the next morning. There was a field before the Manse, and
though there was a factory and a rope-work and a bleach-field and a coal-pit
all in close proximity to it, there was also the Den, where hyacinths grew in
spring, and where you could dig fern roots for your garden. The Manse
itself stood in a large garden, and in time we forgot to notice the factories.
The people were very unlike the courteous Inchkeld people—miners and
factory workers, who gave one as they passed a Jack's-as-good-as-his-
master sort of nod. We grew to understand them and to value their staunch
friendship, but at first they were as fremt as the landscape.
"When the cab lurched through the ruts to the Manse gate and I got out
and saw my new home I quailed. From the front it was a gloomy-looking
house—one window on each side of the front door, and three windows
above, and the kitchen premises on one side. There was a wide gravelled
space in front, with a small shrubbery to shelter us from the road. It was a
sombre and threatening place to enter on a dark night, and when alone I
always made a mad rush from the gate to the front door. One night when I
reached my haven I found a tall man standing against it. I had hardly
strength to gasp, 'Who are you?' and the man replied, 'Weelum Dodds. I
cam' to see the minister aboot gettin' the bairn bapteezed, but the lassie
wadna open the door.' I had told the servants, who were young girls, to keep
the chain on the door at night, and the poor patient soul had just propped
himself up against the door and awaited developments.... The back of the
house, looking to the garden, was delightful. You don't remember the
garden?"
"Don't I?" said Ann. "I was only about nine when we left Kirkcaple, but
I remember every detail of it. Just outside the nursery window there was a
bush of flowering currant. Do you remember that? And jasmine, and all
sorts of creepers grew up the house. There was a big square lawn before the
window, rather sloping, with two long flowerbeds at the top and herbaceous
borders round the high walls. Our own especial gardens were at the top of
the kitchen garden. Mark had a Rose of Sharon tree in his garden about
which he boasted; it seemed to set him a little apart. I had a white lilac tree
in mine; Robbie, severely practical, grew nothing but vegetables, while Jim,
when asked what his contained, said simply and truthfully, 'Wurrums.'

Rosamond was a tiny baby when we left Kirkcaple, and the little lad knew
only Glasgow. It was surely a very large garden, Mother? The gooseberry
bushes alone seemed to me to extend for miles, and in a far-away corner
there was the pigsty. Why was it called 'the pigsty'? In our day there was
never anything in it but two much-loved Russian rabbits with pink eyes,
Fluffy and Pluffy. I have a small red text-book in which, on a certain date, is
printed in large round hand:
'This day Fluffy died.
" " Pluf fy " '
A ferret got in and sucked their blood. What a day of horror that was! The
roof of the pigsty sloped up to the top of the wall, and we liked to sit on the
wall and say rude things to the children on the road, they retorting with
stones and clods of earth. We were all bonnie fighters. You had no notion,
you and Father, when we came down to tea with well-brushed hair and
flannel-polished faces, of the grim battles we had just emerged from. The
enemy was even then at the gate. We, with ears to hear, knew what sundry
dull thuds against the front door meant. Marget, wrathful but loyal, wiped
away the dirt and said nothing to you—lots to us, though! ... But I'm getting
years ahead. You were just arriving with baby Mark to an empty, echoing
Manse, through ways heavy with November mud. Sorry I interrupted."
"As to that," said her mother, "I was really just talking to myself. It is
good of you to listen to my maunderings about the past."
"Not at all," Ann said solemnly; and then, "You daft wee mother, now
that courtesies have been exchanged will you go on with that Life of yours?
It will take us years at this rate. What happened when you tottered into the
Manse? Did you regret the little sunny, bow-windowed Manse in
Inchkeld?"
"Regret! I ached for it. I couldn't picture us being happy in this muddy
mining place; I couldn't see this bare barracks ever getting homelike. But it
was a roomy house. The dining-room was to the right of the front door, the
study to the left, and the nursery was on the ground floor, too. They were all
big square rooms: the dining-room was cosy in the evening but rather dark

in the day time; the study was a very cheerful room, with books all round
the walls, and a bright red carpet, and green leather furniture."
"And a little square clock," Ann added, "with an honest sort of face, and
a picture of John Knox, long white beard and all, above the mantelpiece,
and the carpet had a design on it of large squares; I know, for I used to play
a game on it, jumping from one to another. Some deceased elder had left to
the Manse and to each succeeding minister a tall glass-doored bookcase
containing, among other books, a set of Shakespeare's plays illustrated. It
was funny to see how the artist had made even Falstaff and Ariel quite early
Victorian—and as for merry Beatrice I think she wore a bustle! Not that it
worried us; we were delighted with his efforts ... and in that glass-doored
bookcase there stayed also a very little book dressed in fairy green, with gilt
lettering on its cover. I have tried for years to find another copy, but I have
nothing to go on except that it was a very tiny book and that it contained
fairy tales, translations from the German I think, for it talked in one of a
king lying under the green lindens! I thought linden the most lovely word I
had ever heard! it seemed to set all the horns of Elfland blowing for me.
One of the stories must have been Lohengrin, there was a swan in it and 'a
frail scallop.' How I wept when it appeared for the second time and took the
knight away for ever! I loved Germany then because it was the home of
green lindens and swans with scallops, and houses with pointed roofs and
wide chimneys where storks nested. Even in the war I couldn't hate it as
much as I ought to have done, because of that little green book.... But we're
straying again, at least I am.... You got to like the house, didn't you?"
"Oh dear, yes. It was terribly gaunt at first, but before we left it I thought
it was pretty nearly perfect. When we got fresh paper and paint, and the
wide upper landing and staircase carpeted with crimson, and curtains
shading the high staircase window, everyone said how pretty it was. The
drawing-room was always a pleasant room, with two sunny windows, and
all my treasures (you would call them atrocities) in the way of gilt and
alabaster clocks with glass shades, and marble-topped chiffonier, and red
rep furniture. But the big night nursery was the nicest room of all, with its
row of little beds, each with a gay counterpane! There was a small room
opening from it where your clothes stayed, with a bath and a wash-hand
basin—a very handy place."

"Yes," said Ann; "and in one corner stood a very tall basket for soiled
clothes. I remember Robbie, after hearing of someone's marriage, coming to
you and saying so earnestly, 'I'll stay with you always, Mums, and if anyone
comes to marry me I'll hide in the dirty-clothes basket.'"
Robbie's mother looked into the dancing flames. "That was always his
promise," she said softly, "I'll stay with you always.... It wouldn't have been
so bad beginning in a new place, with a new baby (and me so utterly new
myself!) if Mark hadn't been so fragile. I daresay he suffered from my
inexperience, I almost smothered him with wraps, and hardly dared let him
out of the warm nursery, but he must have been naturally delicate as well.
He got bronchitis on the smallest provocation, and my heart was perpetually
in my mouth with the frights I got. I spent hours listening to his breathing
and touching him to see if he felt hot, and I kept your father racing for the
doctor until both he and the doctor struck. I was so wrapped up in my baby
that I simply never turned my head to look at the congregation; but they
understood and were patient. I really was very absurd. Some people gave a
dinner-party for us, and your father said I simply must go. On the night of
the party I was certain Mark was taking croup, and I could hardly be
dragged from him to dress. I was determined that anyway I must be home in
good time, and I ordered the cab to come back for us at a quarter to nine!
We had hardly finished dinner when it was announced, but I rose at once to
go. The hostess, astonished but kind, said on hearing my excuses, 'Ah, well,
experience teaches.' 'Finish your proverb, Mrs. Smeaton,' my dinner
neighbour (a clergyman from a neighbouring parish) broke in, 'Experience
teaches fools.' Now I realise that the man was embittered—and little
wonder!—by having tried to make conversation to me for a dreary hour, but
at the moment I hated him. When we left Kirkcaple he and his wife were
our greatest friends.... There were four houses in our road. The large one
nearest the Den belonged to one of the linoleum people, we came next, and
then there was a low, bungalow sort of house where the Mestons lived with
their three little girls, and at the end of the road lived one of the elders in the
church—Goskirk was the name—with his wife and eight sons. How they all
got into that small house I know not, but it was always comfortable, and
there was always a welcome, and Mrs. Goskirk was the busiest, happiest
little woman in Kirkcaple, and a great stand-by to me. 'How's baby to-day?'
she would come in saying, every word tilted up at the end as is the accent of

Fife. As rich in experience as I was poor, she could soothe my fears and
laugh at my forebodings. She prescribed simple, homely remedies and told
me not to fuss. She gave me a new interest in life, and kept me happily
engaged by teaching me how to make clothes for Mark. Her little boys
trotted in and out, coming to show me all their treasures, and going away
pleased with a sweetie or a sugar biscuit! They did much to make me feel at
home.... When I went back to Etterick in summer I thought Mark was a
lovely baby, and that he had a wonderful mother! He wore a pelisse I had
made him (under Mrs. Goskirk's eye), cream cashmere, with a wide band of
lavender velvet, and a soft, white felt hat with a lavender feather round it. I
paid fifteen shillings for the feather and thought it a great price.... For three
years we had only Mark, then you and Robbie quite close together. But
Mark was never put in the 'stirk's stall'; for you were a healthy, placid baby,
and my dear Robbie was just like you. I remember his coming so well. It
was a February morning, and Mrs. Perm, the nurse, said: 'Another deil o' a
laddie.' She much preferred girls. Robbie was such a caller baby, so fat and
good-natured and thriving."
"My very first recollection of Robbie," Ann said, "is in the garden. I
think it must have been an April morning, for I remember daffodils, and the
sun was shining, and the wind tumbling us about, and Mark said to me that
he thought Ellie Robbie meant to run away with Robbie, and that it behoved
us to save him. As he told me his terrible suspicions Robbie came down the
walk pulling behind him a large rake—a little boy with an almost white
head, very blue eyes, and very chubby, very rosy cheeks. I remember we
separated him from his rake and Mark dragged us both into the gooseberry
bushes, where we lay hid until Ellie Robbie (the suspect) came to look for
us, bringing us a treat in the shape of a slice each of brown scone spread
with marmalade, and two acid drops. That closed the incident."
CHAPTER VII

On these winter evenings in the Green Glen, when the wind and the rain
beat upon the house, and Ann by the fireside wrote down her mother's life,
Marget made many errands into the drawing-room to offer advice.
"I think"—said Ann one evening—"I think I must have been horribly
neglected as a baby. Everyone was so taken up with Mark they hadn't time
to look at me."
Marget was standing in the middle of the room with her hands folded on
her black satin apron; she would have scorned to wear a white apron after
working hours. She had come in with a list of groceries to be ordered by
post, and stood looking suspiciously at Ann and her writing.
"Ye were never negleckit when I kent ye, an' I cam' to the hoose afore ye
kent yer richt hand frae yer left. You were a wee white-heided cratur and
Maister Robbie wasna shortened."
"Ah, but were you there when Mark fell out of the carriage and was so
frightfully hurt? I've been told by Aunt Agatha that no one had time to
attend to me, and I was just shut up in a room with some toys and fed at
intervals. It's a wonder that the Cruelty to Children people didn't get you."
"Havers," said Marget.
"That was a terrible time," Mrs. Douglas said. "Mark was four, and
beginning to get stronger. You were a year old, Ann. It was a lovely day in
June, and Mr. Kerr, in the kindness of his heart, sent a carriage to take us all
for a drive."
"I mind fine o' Mr. Kerr," Marget broke in. "He was fair bigoted on the
kirk. I dinna think he ever missed a Sabbath's service or a Wednesday
prayer-meeting."
"I mind of him, too," said Ann. "He had white hair and bushy white
eyebrows, and a fierce expression and an ebony stick with an ivory handle.
He used to give Mark presents at Christmas time, but he ignored the
existence of the rest of us. I remember we went to see him once, and he
presented Mark with a book. Mark took it and said, 'Yes, and what for Ann?'

and Mr. Kerr had to fumble about and produce something for me while I
waited stolidly, quite unabashed by my brother's unconventional
behaviour."
"Mr. Kerr was the best friend the Kirkcaple Church had," Mrs. Douglas
said. "He 'joyed' in its prosperity—how he struggled to get the members to
increase their givings. His great desire was that it should give more largely
than the parish kirk of the district. People may talk about union and one
great Church, but when we are all one I'm afraid there may be a lack of
interest—a falling off in endeavour. St. Paul knew what he was talking
about when he spoke of 'provoking' one another to love and good works....
At first I couldn't bear Mr. Kerr. If I let your father forget an intimation, or
if a funeral was forgotten, or someone was neglected, he came to the Manse
in a passion. I fled at the sight of him. But gradually I found that his
fierceness wasn't to be feared, and that it was the sheer interest he took that
made him hate things to go wrong—and one is grateful to people who take
a real interest, however oddly they may show it."
"So Mr. Kerr sent his carriage," Ann prompted.
"Mr. Kerr sent his carriage," said her mother, "and we set out to have a
picnic on the Loan. We were as merry as children. You were on my knee,
Ann, and Agatha sat beside me, your father and Mark opposite. We were
about Thornkirk, and Mark, who was always mad about flowers, pointing to
the dusty roadside, cried, 'A bluebell,' and suddenly made a spring against
the door, which, to our horror, opened, and Mark fell out.... I don't know
what happened next. The first thing I knew I was in a cottage frantically
pulling at a chest of drawers and crying for something to cover the awful
wound. By great good fortune our own doctor happened to pass in his
dogcart just then. All he said was, 'Take him home.' ... He stayed with us
most of the night, but he could give us no hope that the child would live, or,
living, have his reason. For days he lay unconscious, sometimes raving,
sometimes pitifully moaning. Agatha and I knew nothing of nursing, and
there were no trained nurses in those days—at least, not in Kirkcaple. What
would have happened to us all I know not if Mrs. Peat hadn't appeared like
a good angel on the scene. It was wonderful of her to come. A fortnight
before she had got news that her son in India—her idolised only son—had

been killed in some native rising, and she put her own grief aside and came
to us. 'My dear,' she said, 'I've come to take the nights, if you will let me.
You're young, and you need your sleep.' So every evening she came and sat
up—night after night for four long weeks. I used to go into the night
nursery on those summer mornings—I was so young and strong that,
anxious as I was I couldn't help sleeping—and find Mrs. Peat sitting there
with her cap ribbons unruffled, her hair smooth, so serene looking that no
one could have believed that she had kept a weary vigil. She was a born
nurse, and she possessed a healing touch. I believe she did more than
anyone to pull Mark through; and all the time we were in Kirkcaple she was
a tower of strength to me. Always twice a week she came up early in the
afternoon and stayed till evening, her cap in the neatest little basket in her
hand—for she always took off her bonnet. I think I hear her saying, 'Eh, my
dear,' with a sort of slow emphasis on the 'my.' She never made mischief in
the congregation by boasting how 'far ben' she was at the Manse. She had a
mind far above petty things; she dreamed dreams and saw visions."
Mrs. Douglas stopped and laughed. "Your father, who admired her very
much, had been telling an old body troubled with sleepless nights how Mrs.
Peat spent her wakeful hours, and she said to me, 'It's an awfu' job to rowe
aboot in this bed a' night; I wisht I had some o' Mrs. Peat's veesions.'"
"I mind Mistress Peat," said Marget, who had now seated herself; "I
mind her fine. She was a rale fine buddy. Miss Peat was a braw wumman.
D'ye mind her comin' to a pairty we had in a crimson satin body an' her hair
a' crimpit an' pearls aboot as big as bantam's eggs? Eh, I say!"
"I remember the pearls," said Ann. "I suppose they were paste, but I
thought the Queen of Sheba couldn't have been much more impressive than
Miss Peat. She had a velvet coat trimmed with some sort of feather
trimming, and a muff to match—beautiful soft grey feathers. I used to lean
against her and stroke it and think it was like a dove's breast. I overheard
someone say that it was marvellous to think that the Peats had no servants
and that Miss Peat could clean pots and cook, and then emerge like
Solomon in all his glory. After that, when we sang the psalm:
'Though ye have lain among the pots
Like doves ye shall appear...'

I thought of Miss Peat in her velvet coat and her soft feathers.... Was she
good to you, too, when Mark was so ill?'
"I should think she was—but everyone was good. At the time I took it all
as a matter of course, but afterwards I realised it. For days Mark lay
delirious, and I was distraught with the thought that his brain might be
injured; you see, the wheel passed over the side of his head. When he
became conscious at last, the doctor told me to ask him some questions. I
could think of nothing, and then I remembered that Mark had had a special
fondness for Crichton, our butcher. Trembling, I asked, 'Darling, what is the
butcher called?' and in a flash he answered 'Mr. Cwichton.' I wept with
relief. But it seemed as if the poor little chap was never to be given a chance
to get well. Three times the wound healed and three times it had to be
opened again. No wonder our thoughts were all for him, and that you were
neglected, Ann, poor child! And you were so good, so little trouble, it
almost seemed as if you understood. Mark had a great big wooden box
filled with every kind of dry sweetie, and he would sit propped up with
pillows, and weigh them, and make them up in little 'pokes.' Sometimes he
would ask for you, and you were brought in, so delighted to play on the bed
and crawl about, but very soon he tired of you (especially if you touched his
sweeties!), and ordered you away. He could not be allowed to cry, and we
had to devise things to keep him amused. Opening lucky bags was a great
diversion. They cost a ha'penny each, and he made away with dozens in a
day. The great difficulty was getting him to eat. At Etterick he was
accustomed to going to the milk-house and getting new milk from the pail
into his 'tinny,' and when he was ill he wouldn't touch milk, because he said
it wasn't 'Etterick milk.' So your father scoured Kirkcaple until he found a
'tinny,' and a pail as nearly as possible like the milk-pails at Etterick, and we
took them to the nursery, and said, 'Now, then, Mark, is this real Etterick
milk?' and the poor little man held out his thin hands for the 'tinny' and
drank greedily.... He lay for six months, and when he got up he had to be
taught how to walk! And even after we got him up and out he was the most
pathetic little figure, with a bandaged head far too big for his shadow of a
body. But I was so proud of having got him so far on the way to recovery
that I didn't realise how he looked to outsiders, until a very cruel thing was
said to me the very first time I had him out. A man we knew slightly
stopped to ask for him, and said, 'It seems almost a pity he pulled through.

I'm afraid he will never be anything but an object.' I don't think he meant to
hurt me; perhaps it was just sheer stupidity, but ... It was a man called
Temple who said it. You never knew him, Ann."
"Temple," said Marget. "Dauvit Temple the manufacturer? Eh, the
impident fella'. Him to ca' onybody, let alone Mr. Mark, an objec'. Objec'
himsel'. It wad hae been tellin' him if he hed fa'en on his heid an' gien his
brains a bit jumble, but I doot if the puir sowl had ony to jumble; he hed a
heid like a hen. He was fit for naething but ridin' in a high dogcart an' tryin'
to forget that his dacent auld mither bleached her claes on the Panny Braes
an' his faither worked in the pit. But ye needna fash yersel' aboot him and
his sayin's noo, Mem. He's gone to his reward—such as it is."
"Indeed, Marget, it's a poor thing to bear malice, and I believe that awful
accident was the making of Mark. He grew up as strong as a Shetland pony.
He was an extraordinarily clever little boy. We were told not to try and
teach him till he was seven, but he taught himself to read from the posters.
He asked endless questions of everyone he met, and so acquired
information. There was nothing he wasn't interested in, and every week
brought a fresh craze. At one time it was fowls, and he spent hours with
Mrs. Frew, a specialist on the subject, and came home with coloured
pictures of prize cocks which he insisted on pinning round the nursery
walls. For a long time it was ships, and he and Mr. Peat, who was a retired
sea-captain, spent most of their time at the harbour. Next it was precious
stones, and he accosted every lady (whether known to him or not), and
asked her about the stones she was wearing."
"Yes," said Ann, "he was a wonderful contrast to Robbie and me. We
never asked for information on any subject, for we wanted none. We were
ignorant and unashamed, and we used to look with such bored eyes at Mark
and wonder how he could be bothered. It was really disgusting for the rest
of us to have such a clever eldest brother. He set a standard which we
couldn't hope—indeed, we never thought of trying—to attain to. What a
boy he was for falling on his head! He had been warned that if he cut open
the wound in his head again it would never heal, so when he fell from a
tree, or a cart, or a pony, or whatever he was on at the moment, we stood
afar off and shouted, 'Is it your wound, Mark?' prepared on hearing it was to

run as far as our legs would carry us. That is a child's great idea when
trouble comes—to run away from it. Once Mark—do you remember?—
climbed the white lilac tree in my garden on a Sunday afternoon and,
slipping, fell on a spiked branch and hung there. Instead of going for help I
ran and hid among the gooseberry bushes, and he wasn't rescued until you
came home from church."
"That was too bad of you," her mother said, "for Mark had always a
great responsibility for you. One day when there was a bad thunderstorm I
found him dragging you by the hand to the nursery—such a fat, sulky little
thing you looked.
"'I'm going to pray for Ann,' he told me. 'She won't pray for herself.'"
CHAPTER VIII
"I don't know," said Mrs. Douglas, "when I first realised what was
expected of me as a minister's wife. I suppose I just grew to it. At first I
visited the people and tried to take an interest in them, because I felt it to be
my duty, and then I found that it had ceased to be merely duty, and that one
couldn't live among people and not go shares with them. It was the long
anxiety about Mark that really drew us together and made us friends in a
way that years of prosperity would never have done. There was hardly a
soul in the congregation who didn't try to do us some little kindness in those
dark days. Fife people are suspicious of strangers and rather aloof in their
manner, but once you are their friend you are a friend for life. Ours was a
working-class congregation (with a sprinkling of well-to-do people to help
us along)—miners, and workers in the linoleum factories—decent, thrifty
folk. Trade was dull all the time we were in Kirkcaple, and wages were low
—ridiculously low when you think of the present-day standard, and it was a
hard struggle for the mothers with big young families. Of course, food was
cheap—half a loaf and a biscuit for twopence—and 'penny haddies,' and

eggs at ninepence a dozen—and people hadn't the exalted ideas they have
now."
"Well," said Ann, who was busy filling her fountain-pen, "I seem to
remember rather luxurious living about the Mid Street, and the Nether
Street, and the Watery Wynd. Don't you remember I made friends with
some girls playing 'the pal-lals' in the street, and fetched them home with
me, and when upbraided for so doing by Ellie Robbie in the nursery, I said,
'But they're gentry; they get kippers to their tea.' My 'bare-footed gentry'
became a family jest."
Mrs. Douglas laughed, "I remember. To save your face we let them stay
to tea, but you were told 'Never again.'"
"It was a way I had," said Ann. "I was full of hospitable instincts, and
liked to invite people; but as I had seldom the moral courage to confess
what I had done, the results were disastrous. Once I invited eight genteel
young friends who, thinking it was a pukka invitation, arrived washed and
brushed and dressed for a party, only to find us tearing about the garden in
our old Saturday clothes. Ellie Robbie was justly incensed, as she hadn't
even a sugar-biscuit to give an air of festivity to the nursery tea, and you
were out. In private she addressed me as 'ye little dirt'; but she didn't give
me away in public. And the dreadful thing was that I repudiated my guests,
and looked as if I wondered what they were doing there."
"Poor Ellie Robbie!" Mrs. Douglas said. "She was an anxious pilgrim,
and you children worried her horribly. She came when she was sixteen to be
nursemaid to Mark, and she stayed on till we left Kirkcaple, when she
married the joiner. Do you remember her much?"
"I remember one evening in the Den. We were getting fern-roots, and
Ellie Robbie and Marget were both with us, and Marget said to Ellie, 'My,
how neat your dress kicks out at the back when you walk!' Isn't memory an
extraordinary thing? I've forgotten most of the things I ought to have
remembered, but I can recall every detail of that scene—the earthy smell of
the fern-roots, the trowel sticking out of Mark's pocket, the sunlight falling
through the trees, the pleased smirk on Ellie Robbie's face. I suppose I
would be about five. At that time I was completely lost about my age. When

people asked me how old I was, I kept on saying, 'Five past,' but to myself I
said, 'I must be far more, but no one has ever told me.' ... What was Ellie
Robbie's real name?"
"Ellen Robinson. Her father's name was Jack, and he was supposed by
you children to be the original of the saying, 'Before you can say Jack
Robinson.' Marget and Ellie got on very well together, although they were
as the poles asunder—Ellie so small and neat and gentle, Marget rather like
a benevolent elephant. She is a much better-looking old woman than she
was a young one."
"Did Marget come when Maggie Ann married?"
"Yes. No—there was one between—Katie Herd. She stayed a month and
was doing very well, but she suddenly announced that she was going home.
When we asked her why, she replied with great candour, 'I dinna like it
verra weel,' and off she went. Marget was a success from the first. We knew
it was all right as soon as she began to talk of 'oor bairns.' When the work
was over she liked to go to the nursery, and you children welcomed her with
enthusiasm, and at once called on her to say her poem. Then she would
stand up and shuffle her feet, and say:
'Marget Meikle is ma name,
Scotland is ma nation,
Harehope is ma dwelling place—
A pleasant habitation.'
You delighted in her witticisms. 'Ca' me names, ca' me onything, but dinna
ca' me ower,' was one that had a great success. Both she and Ellie were
ideal servants for a minister's house; they were both so discreet. No tales
were ever carried by them to or from the Manse. There was one noted
gossip in the congregation who was a terror to Ellie. Her husband had a
shop, and of course we dealt at it—he was an elder in the church—and Ellie
dreaded going in, for she knew that if Mrs. Beaton happened to be there she
would be subjected to a fire of questions. Marget enjoyed an encounter, and
liked to think out ways of defeating Mrs. Beaton's curiosity. Not that there
was any harm in Mrs. Beaton and her desire to know all our doings. I dare
say it was only kindly interest. I got to like her very much; she was a racy

talker and full of whinstone common sense. I was sorry for her, too, for no
woman ever worked harder, both in the shop and in the house, and her
husband and family took it all for granted. She did kind things in an
ungracious way, and was vexed when people failed to appreciate her
kindness. Across the road from Mrs. Beaton lived another elder's wife, Mrs.
Lister, who, Mrs. Beaton thought, got from life the very things she had
missed.
"'Never toil yourself to death,' she used to tell me, 'for your man and
your bairns; they'll no thank you for it. Look at the Listers over there. Willie
Lister goes about with holes like half-crowns in his heels, but he thinks the
world of his Aggie.' And it was quite true. I knew that gentle little Mrs.
Lister was everybody's favourite, for she contradicted no one, ruffled no
one's feelings, while rough-tongued, honest, impudent Mrs. Beaton was
both feared and disliked. And yet there was no doubt which of the two
women one would have chosen to ride the ford with. Had a tea-meeting to
be arranged, a sale of work to be organised, or a Christmas-tree to be
provided for Sunday school, Mrs. Beaton was in it—purse and person.
"Mrs. Lister always took 'the bile' when anything was expected of her.
Once a year we were invited to tea at the Listers' house, and as sure as we
found ourselves seated before a table groaning with bake-meats and were
being pressed by Mr. Lister to partake of them because they were all baked
by 'Mamaw,' Mrs. Lister would say, 'Ay, and I had a job baking them—for I
was bad with "the bile" all morning.' As Marget says, 'The mistress is awfu'
easy scunnered,' and after hearing that my tea was a pretence. It was worse
when Agatha was there, for then we were apt to wait for the announcement,
and when it came give way to painful, secret laughter. Agatha always
laughed, too, when Mrs. Lister capped her husband's sayings with 'Ay, that's
it, Paw.' She was a most agreeable wife, but she was a mother before
everything. She would have talked all day about her children, bursting out
with odd little disjointed confidences about them in the middle of a
conversation about something else. 'He's an awful nice boy, Johnnie; he's
got a fine voice,' would occur in a conversation about the Sustentation
Fund, and in the middle of a discussion about a series of lectures she would
whisper, 'He's a queer laddie, our Tommy. When Nettie was born he put his
head round my bedroom door and said, "Is she a richt ane, Maw?" He

meant not deaf or dumb or anything, you know.' She sometimes irritated her
husband by her overanxiety about the health of her children. If one coughed
in the night she always heard and, fearful of waking Mr. Lister, she would
creep out of bed and jump from mat to mat (I can see her doing it—a sort of
anxious little antelope), and listen to their breathing, and hap them up with
extra bedclothes. Nettie was the youngest, and the delicate one, and had to
be tempted to eat. 'Oh, ma Nettie,' she would say, 'could you take a taste of
haddie to your tea or a new-laid egg?'
"She was afraid of nearly everything—mice, and wind, and thunder, and
she hated the sea. One morning I met her almost distraught because her
boys had all gone out in a boat. 'Is their father with them?' I asked. 'No, no,'
she said, 'I didna let him go; it was just the more to drown.' Poor, anxious
little body! God took her first, and she never had the anguish of parting with
her children.... What an opportunity ministers and ministers' wives have of
getting to know people as they are—their very hearts!"
"Yes," said Ann; "but it isn't every minister or every minister's wife who
can make anything of the opportunity. Just think of some we know—sticks.
Can you think of any poor stricken soul going to them to be comforted 'as
one whom his mother comforteth'? What would they say? 'Oh, indeed! How
sad!' or 'Really! I'm very sorry.' Some little stilted sentence that would
freeze the very fount of tears. You, Mother, I don't think you would say
anything. To speak to those who weep is no use; you must be able in all
sincerity to weep with them. As for Father, his voice was enough. Isn't it in
one of the Elizabeth books that someone talking of the futility of long, dull
sermons, says, 'If only a man with a voice of gold would stand up and say,
"Children, Christ died for you," I would lay down my head and cry and
cry...' Oh, it's a great life if a minister and his wife are any good at their job,
and, above all, if they have a sense of humour!"
"Well, I don't know about the sense of humour," Mrs. Douglas said
doubtfully. "I have often envied the people who never seem overcome by
the ludicrous side of things, who don't even seem aware that it is there. Do
you remember Mrs. Daw? I dare say not. My first meeting with her was in
the Path on a hot summer's day. I saw an enormously stout woman toiling in
front of me with a heavy basket, and as I passed her she laid down her load,

and turning to me a red, perspiring, but surprisingly bland countenance,
said, 'Hech! but it's a sair world for stout folk.' There was something so
Falstaffian and jocund about the great figure, and the way she took me into
her confidence, that I simply stood still and laughed, and she laughed with
me. We shared the basket between us the rest of the way, and after that I
often visited her. But I could never let your father come with me; Mrs. Daw
was too much for us together. Only once we tried it, and she told us that the
doctor had advised her to take 'sheriff-wine and Van Houtong's cocoah,' and
her genteel pronunciation was too much for us. She was never at her best
when your father was there; she didn't care for the clergy.
"'A lazy lot,' she called them. 'No wan o' them does a decent day's work.
If it was me I wad mak' a' the ministers pollismen as weel, and that wad
save some o' the country's siller.' She condescended to say that she rather
liked your father's preaching, though her reason for liking it was not very
flattering. 'I like him because he's no what ye ca' a scholarly preacher. I
dinna like thae scholars, they're michty dull. I like the kind o' minister that
misca's the deevil for aboot twenty meenits and then stops.'
"Mrs. Daw had me bogged at once when we started on theological
discussions. She would ask questions and answer them herself as she knelt
before the kitchen fire, engaged in what she called 'ringein' the ribs.'
"'Ay,' she would say, 'I'm verra fond o' a clear fire. Mercy me, it'll be an
awfu' want in heaven—a guid fire. Ye read aboot golden streets and pearly
gates, but it's cauld comfort to an auld body wha likes her ain fireside. Of
coorse we'll a' be speerits.' (It needed a tremendous effort of imagination to
picture Mrs. Daw as a spirit!) 'Wull speerit ken speerit?' and then, as if in
scorn at her own question, 'I daur say no! It wad be little use if they did. I
could get sma' enjoyment frae crackin' wi' a neebor, if a' the time I was
lookin' through her, and her through me. An' what wad we crack aboot? Nae
couthy bits o' gossip up there—juist harps an' angels fleein' aboot....'
"I would suggest diffidently that when we had gone on to another and
higher life we wouldn't feel the want of the homely things so necessary to
us here, and Mrs. Daw, shaking her head, would say, 'I dinna ken,' and then
with her great laugh (your father used to quote something about a thousand
beeves at pasture when he heard it) she would finish the profitless

discussion with 'Weel, sit ye doun by ma guid fire and I'll mak' ye a cup o'
tea in ma granny's cheeny teapot. We'll tak' our comforts so long as we hae
them, for think as ye like the next warld's a queer turn-up onyway....'"
CHAPTER IX
Evening had come again to Dreams, but Ann, instead of being found at
her writing-table, was stretched flat in the largest and softest of the many
comfortable chairs the room contained, with the Tatler, a great, furry, sleepy
mass, curled in her arms.
"Dear me, Ann!" Mrs. Douglas said, looking up from her "reading."
"You seem very exhausted. Aren't you going to write to-night?"
Ann looked through half-closed eyes at her mother.
"Can't," she said lazily; "too dog-tired. A tea-party in the Green Glen is
too much for me. After such unwonted excitement I must sit all evening
with my hands before me. Mother, did we ever really entertain people day
after day—relays of them? I can't believe to-night that we ever presided at
meetings, and read papers, and gave away prizes, and organised sales of
work and cookery classes for the masses, and visited the sick, and talked for
ever and did not faint—such feeble folk as we have become."
Mrs. Douglas sighed as she laid down Hours of Silence. "I was of some
use in the world then," she said, "not a mere cumberer of the ground."
Ann sat up and laughed at her mother. "I'm not going to rise to that fly,
Motherkin. You remind me of the Glasgow woman we met in Switzerland,
who was suffering from some nervous trouble, and who said, 'I would give
a thousand pounds to be the Mistress Finlay I once was.' Perhaps you are
not quite the Mistress Douglas you once were, but I can see very little
difference."

Mrs. Douglas sighed again, and shook her head. "Oh—sic a worrit-
lookin' wumman!" Ann quoted. Then, "I must say I enjoyed the tea-party.
Mother, don't you like Mr. Sharp? I do. You needn't have rubbed it in about
sermons being no use if they are read. He sat with such a guilty look like a
scolded dog. I like his painstaking sermons and his sincere, difficult little
prayers. He will never make a preacher, but he is a righteous man. Miss
Ellen Scott cheered him by saying read sermons were generally more
thoughtful. I do wish we could see the Scotts oftener. They have promised
to come to luncheon one day, and go thoroughly into the garden question.
They go south, they told me, in the early spring, so that the servants may
get the house-cleaning done, and they weary all the time to get back. I
wonder if they carry about them in London that sort of fragrance of the
open air."
"They are nice women," said Mrs. Douglas, "and good, but they aren't
my kind of people. We don't care about the same things. But Mr. Sharp
makes me feel young again; he has the very atmosphere of a manse about
him."
"The atmosphere of Mr. Sharp's Manse is chiefly paraffin oil," said Ann.
At that moment Marget came into the room, ostensibly to remind Ann of
something needed at the village shop the next day, but really to talk over the
tea-party.
"I think the minister enjoyed his tea," she remarked, "for there was an
awfu' wheen scones eaten."
"He did, indeed, Marget," her mistress assured her. "He said he didn't
know when he had tasted such good scones. He was asking me what I
thought about him entertaining the office-bearers. He would like to, but his
housekeeper is delicate and afraid of work; and he's afraid to suggest
anything in case she departs."
"Tets!" said Marget. "That wumman fair angers me. She's neither sick
nor sair, an' she's no' that auld aither, but she keeps that puir laddie in
misery a' the time in case she's gaun to break doon. She never bakes him a
scone, juist loaf breed a' the time, an' she'll no' bother to mak' him a bit

steamed pudden' or a tert, juist aye a milk-thing, an' a gey watery milk-thing
at that. She boasts that he carries trays for her and breaks sticks—the
wumman should be ashamed to let the minister demean himsel'. If he wants
to gie an Elders' Supper, what's to hinder me and Mysie to gang doon and
gie a hand?'
"Why, Marget," Ann cried, "I haven't heard that expression since I was a
child. It was at Kirkcaple we had Elders' Suppers, wasn't it, Mother—never
in Glasgow?'
"Only in Kirkcaple. They were held after the November Communions to
purge the roll."
"Purge the roll," Ann murmured to herself; "of all delicious phrases!"
"If ye'll excuse me, Mem," said Marget, "I'll tak' a seat for a meenit.
Mysie has just gone doon the road a step or two wi' the lassie Ritchie frae
the cottages."
She seated herself primly on a chair and said:
"I think ye should pit in yer Life about the Elders' Suppers."
Ann nodded. "I think so, Marget. I can just recall them vaguely. We were
all in bed before the elders actually came, but I remember the preparation,
and how deeply I envied you and Ellie Robbie staying up, little dreaming,
poor babe, how in after years I would envy the children who get away to
bed before the party begins."
"They were terrifying occasions to me," said her mother. "Elders in the
mass are difficult to cope with. When they arrived they were shown into the
study, and when the business part of the proceedings was over they trooped
into the dining-room for supper. To keep the ball of conversation going, to
compel them to talk and save the party from being a dismal failure was my
job, and it was no light task. They were the best of men, our Kirkcaple
elders, but they let every subject drop like a hot potato. It was from
occasions like that I learned to talk 'even on,' as they say. I simply dared not
let a silence fall, for, from bitter experience, I knew that if I did and caught

your father's eye we would be sure to laugh and bring disgrace on
ourselves."
"Don't I know?" said her daughter. "Will you ever forget that night in
Glasgow, when we invited your class to an evening party, and they all
arrived in a body and in dead silence seated themselves round the room, and
none of us could think of a single word to say, and in an agony we sat,
becoming every moment more petrified, and my tongue got so stiff I felt
that if I spoke it would break off, and Father suddenly broke the awful
silence with 'Quite so,' delivered in a high, meaningless voice, and we
simply fell on each other helpless with laughter?"
Mrs. Douglas laughed at the recollection. "Once you let a silence fall,"
she said, "it's hopeless. Nothing seems important enough to break it with....
To go back to the Elders' Suppers—we always had the same menu. Hot
roast beef, hot beef-steak pie, with vegetables, then plum-pudding and
apple-tart, and coffee. The oldest elder, Charles Mitchell was his name, sat
on my right hand, and the next eldest, Henry Petrie, sat on my left. Charles
Mitchell was so deaf that any attempts to converse were thrown away on
him. Henry Petrie was a man of most melancholy countenance, and
absolutely devoid of light table-talk. He was sad, and said nothing, and
might as well have been a post. One night, having tried him on every
subject with no success, I watched him being helped to vegetables, and said,
in desperation, 'Potatoes are good this year, don't you think?' He turned on
me his mournful eyes, his knife suspended on its way to his mouth, and
said, 'They'll no' stand a boil.'"
"D'ye mind," said Marget, "thon awfu' nicht when the pie cowpit on the
gravel? We were gettin' it covered at Wilson's the baker's, for they made
uncommon guid pastry, an' it didna come till the verra last meenit. I was oot
lookin' for the laddie at the gate, an' when he came I took it frae him in a
hurry, an', eh, mercy! if the whole hypothic didna slidder oot o' ma hand on
to the grund. I let oot a yell an' Ellie came runnin' oot, and syne she brocht a
lamp, an' we fund that the pastry wasna muckle the waur, but the meat an'
the gravy was a' amang the gravel. What could we do but juist scoop up wi'
a spoon what we could get—meat, chuckie-stanes an' a'—an' into the hoose
wi' it. I can tell ye I handit roond the plates gey feared that nicht. I tried ma

best to get them to choose the guid clean roast beef, but there was nae
takkers. Juist pie, pie, pie, one after another until I was fair provokit. Every
meenit I expectit to hear their teeth gang crunch on a stane. I can tell ye I
was glad when I got their plates whuppit awa' frae them, an' the puddens
plankit doon. It was a guid thing appendicitis wasna invented then, or they
wad a' ha' been lying wi' it, for an orange pip's a fule to a chuckie-stane."
"Ay, Marget," said her mistress, "we had many a fright. As old Mrs.
Melville used to say, 'Folk gets awfu' frichts in this warld.' Well, well!" Mrs.
Douglas sighed as was her way. "We had many a successful party, too."
"Folk," said Marget complacently, "likit fine to come to oor hoose. They
aye got a graund feed an' a guid lauch forbye. The maister wasna mebbe
verra divertin' in company, being naitral quiet, but you were a great hand at
the crackin', Mem."
Mrs. Douglas modestly waved away the compliment, while Ann said,
"You must have had some very smart suppers, for I have a distinct
recollection of eating ratafia biscuits and spun sugar from a trifle one
morning after a party."
"The trifle evenings were few and far between," said her mother; "but we
had many a cosy little party among our neighbours."
Marget again broke in. "No' to mention a' the folk that juist drappit in.
Oor hoose was a fair thro-gate for folk. A' the ministers that lived a bit away
kent whaur to come to in Kirkcaple for their tea. Ye'll mind, Mem, that Mr.
and Mrs. Dewar were never muckle away. When Mr. Dewar walkit in frae
Buckie and fund naebody in, he wad say to me, 'I'll be back for my tea,
Marget. Isn't this baking-day?'" (Marget adopted a loud, affected tone when
imitating anyone; this she called "speaking proper.") "Then Mistress Dewar
wad come hoppin' in—'deed she was often in afore I got to the door, for I
wad mebbe be dressin' when the bell rang. I wad hae to put on my wrapper
again, an' there she wad be sittin' on a chair in the lobby, knittin' awa' like
mad. 'Always busy, you see, Marget,' she would say; 'I belong to the save-
the-moment society.' Then she wad gie that little lauch o' hers. Sic a wee bit
o' a thing she wis, mair like a bairn than a mairret wumman."

"Once," said Ann, "I went somewhere to spend a day with Mrs. Dewar,
and coming home we had to wait awhile for a train. Mrs. Dewar, of course,
was knitting, and as the light was bad in the waiting-room she calmly
climbed up on the table and stood, picking up a stitch, as near to the gas-jet
as she could get. She made the oddest spectacle with her bonnet a little on
one side, as it always was, her little blunt face and childish figure. And to
make matters worse she sang as she knitted:
'Did you ever put a penny in a missionary box?
A penny that you might have gone and spent like other folks?'
It was torture to a self-conscious child to hear the giggles of the few
spectators of the scene."
Mrs. Douglas laughed softly as if remembering something precious.
"Little Mrs. Dewar cared who laughed at her. That was what made her so
unusual and so refreshing. The queer, dear, wee body! There was no one I
liked so much to come to the house. She was so companionable and so
unfussy. If she could only stay ten minutes she was calm and settled for that
ten minutes, and then went. I have seen people who meant to stay for hours
keep me restless and unhappy all the time by their fluttered look. Whenever
I got tired of my house, or my work, or myself, I went to Buckie to Mrs.
Dewar. They had a delightful old manse, with a charming garden behind,
but in front it faced a blank wall. Someone condoled with Mrs. Dewar on
the lack of view. 'Tuts,' she said, 'we've never time to look at a view.''
"Like old Mary Hart at Etterick, when a visitor said to her, 'What a
lovely view you have!' 'An' what aboot it?' was the disconcerting answer. I
remember the Dewars' manse, Mother. I once stayed there for a week. What
a pity Mrs. Dewar had no children of her own! She was a wonder with
children. I was only a tiny child, but she taught me so much, and interested
me in so many different things and people. After breakfast I had to help her
to 'classify' the dishes; put all the spoons together, and wipe the knives with
soft paper and make them all ready to be washed. Then we saw that the salts
and mustards were tidy, and the butter and jam in dainty dishes. Then we
would take a bundle of American papers to a woman who had a son in the
United States, and on our way home she would take me down to the shore
and point out the exact spot on the rocks where she had once found a

beautiful coral comb, and where the next day she had found a mermaid
sitting crying for the loss of it. It was a long story, but I know it finished
with the grateful mermaid giving a large donation to the Sustentation Fund!
Mrs. Dewar had an extraordinary number of relations, who all seemed to be
generals and admirals, and things like that, and the tales of the Indian
nephews who had come to her as babies were enthralling to me. They were
grown up by that time, and, I suppose, on their way to become generals,
too. There was always something rather military about Mrs. Dewar's small,
alert figure. 'Mustard to mutton,' she would say to me at dinner; 'child, you
would be expelled from the mess.' She was really too funny. When Mr.
Dewar would say, 'My dear, have you seen my spectacles?' she would reply,
'Seek and ye shall find, not speak and ye shall find.' And if the servants
worried her she walked about saying the hymn beginning, 'Calm me, O
God, and keep me calm.'"
"I likit Mrs. Dewar," said Marget; "she had queer ways, but she was a
leddy. She was yin o' the Keiths o' Rathnay—rale gentry. Eh, Mem, d'ye
mind the black that was preachin' for Maister Dewar, an' they couldna keep
him in the hoose, for there was illness, and he cam' to us? Eh, I say!"
"Poor man! I remember your face, Marget, when I met you on the stairs
the morning he left. You were holding some towels away from you and you
said, 'I'm no verra sure aboot that black's towels.'"
"Neither I wis," said Marget; "I'm aye feared the black comes off."
CHAPTER X
"Mother," said Ann one evening, "do you realise that we are not getting
on at all well with your Life? Marget has developed this passion for coming
in and recalling absurd things—last night she wasted the whole evening
with the tale of her grandfather's encounter with a bull; racy, I admit, but
not relevant, and the night before she set me recalling mad escapades of our

childhood, and I didn't write a word. Where we are, I don't know, but there
are only three of us born—Mark and me and Robbie. Jim has got to be
worked in somewhere—and Rosamund. We were all at Etterick recovering
from whooping-cough when Jim was born, so I don't remember much about
him, but Rosamund's coming was a wonderful event. She was my birthday
present when I was eight."
"In some ways Jim was the nicest of the babies," Mrs. Douglas said. "He
was so pretty and sweet-tempered—quite a show child. Whenever we said,
'Sing, Jim,' he dropped on to the floor and began 'Lord, a little band and
lowly,' and he was no age at all."
Ann laughed a sceptical laugh. "He ceased at an early age his efforts to
entertain; he has no use for company now. I suppose it might be a reaction
from his precocious childhood. But he still has the good nature."
"Indeed he has," said Jim's mother fervently. "The Fife people had a
saying 'born for a blessing,' and Jim has been that. Rosamund"—she paused
for a moment, then continued—"Rosamund was the most lovely child I ever
saw. No, it wasn't because I was her mother, unprejudiced people said the
same. I think, perhaps, it was the happiest time in my life, those weeks after
Rosamund came. Not that I hadn't always been happy, but the years before
had been rather a mêlée. Now I had found my feet, more or less, and church
work and housekeeping and baby rearing no longer appalled me. It was in
March she was born. We had got all the spring cleaning done well
beforehand, and the Deacons' Court had papered and painted the stairs and
lobbies, and we had afforded ourselves new stair and landing carpets, and
the house was as fresh as it's possible for a house to be. I lay there with my
baby, so utterly contented, listening to the voices of you and the boys
playing in the garden in the spring sunlight, with pleasant thoughts going
through my mind about my healthy, happy children and a smooth running
church, and thanking God for the best man that ever woman had. And all
the kind people came flocking to see the new baby. Mrs. Dewar came with
a dainty frock made by herself and an armful of books and magazines.
These are George's choosing,' she said, 'and he says you will enjoy them all.
I think myself they look rather dull, so I've brought you one of Annie
Swan's—she's capital for a confinement.' And Mrs. Peat sat by the fire with

Rosamund on her knee and said, 'Eh, my dear, she's a beauty,' and blessed
her. And you children came running in with celandines from the Den, and
grubby treasures which you tried to thrust into the baby's tiny hand—I often
look back on those days. It seems to me that my cup of happiness must have
been lipping over. Rosamund grew like a flower. There was always
something special about her, and we felt it from the first. It wasn't only her
beauty, it was something fine, aloof. You remember her, Ann?"
"Yes, I remember her, Mother. She was always different, even at the
beginning she wasn't red and puckered and squirming like most babies, but
faintly pink like a rose. Father worshipped her. Of course, you know that
you made far more of her than of any of the rest of us, and we were glad
and willing that it should be so. We were never rough with her. She never
lived the tumbled puppy-like life that I lived as a child."
Mrs. Douglas nodded. Presently she said:
"You had a happy childhood, Ann?"
"Hadn't we just? No children ever had a happier; we were so free. When
I see children dragging along dreary daily walks with nurses, I do pity them.
We hated being taken walks by Ellie Robbie, and generally ran away. We
used to meet the Johnstons with their Ellen, and then we big ones dashed
off together on business of our own, leaving the poor nurses tethered to the
prams. We were marauders of the worst type. Having always a great hunger
for sweets and being always destitute of money, we had to devise schemes
for getting them. In Nether Street there stood a little sweetie shop owned by
one Archibald Forbes, a good-natured man who had once (in an evil
moment for himself) given us a few sweeties for nothing. With the awful
pertinacity of children we went back continually in the hope that he might
do it again! (What you and Father would have thought if you had seen us, I
know not!) Sometimes he ordered us away, but, when in a more
forthcoming mood, he would make us say recitations to him, and then
reward us. He must have been a very patient man, Mr. Archibald Forbes, for
I can see him, his spectacles on the end of his nose, and his bushy eyebrows
pulled down, standing behind his counter, listening without a movement to
Mark relentlessly getting through 'The scene was changed'—you know that
thing about Mary Queen of Scots?"

"Indeed I do. If Mark was asked to recite when Mrs. Goskirk was
present, and she heard him begin, 'The scene was changed,' she gave a
resigned sigh and took up her knitting; and there was another about Henry
of Navarre that was almost as bad. The things you did were short and
harmless."
"Oh, quite," said Ann. "There was one about a little girl called Fanny, a
child for whom we had a deep distaste. She had a dream about being in
heaven, I remember:
'I thought to see Papa's estate
But oh! 'twas far too small, Mamma;
The whole wide world was not so big
As William's cricket ball, Mamma.'
And she finished:
'Your pretty Fanny woke, Mamma,
And lo! 'twas but a dream.'
We thought the said Fanny was an insufferably sidey child, first of all for
mentioning 'Papa's estate,' then for saying 'And lo!' and, worst of all, for
alluding to herself as 'pretty Fanny'—that was beyond pardon. Talking
about money, someone once gave me a sixpence, which I took, contrary to
rule—we weren't allowed to take money. Feeling guilty, I ran into a little
shop in the Watery Wynd, a fish shop that sold fruit, and demanded
sixpenny-worth of pears. Ellie Robbie was hard behind, so, with great
presence of mind, I said, 'Give me one just now and I'll get the rest another
time.' That sixpennyworth of pears was a regular widow's cruse to me. For
weeks I called nearly every day at that shop to demand a pear due to me,
until they said if I came again they would tell my father! We can't have had
any decent pride about us, for I don't think we minded being snubbed.
When we ran away from Ellie Robbie the harbour was generally our
destination—a fascinating place where Norwegian sailors strolled about in a
friendly way and could sometimes be persuaded to let us go on board their
ships, where they gave us hot coffee out of gaily painted bowls. The
harbour was the only romantic thing in Kirkcaple. Time meant nothing to us
in those days, and, so far as we were concerned, the King still sat in

Dunfermline town calling for a 'skeely skipper' to sail his ship to 'Norroway
ower the faem'; and many an hour we stood looking out to sea and watching
for the gallant ship 'that never mair cam' hame.' Next to the harbour we
loved the coal-pit, and felt that we were indeed greatly blessed to have one
so near the house. There was no romance about a coal-pit (except the
romance that brings in the nine-fifteen); but there were glorious
opportunities for getting thoroughly dirty. We had many friends among the
miners, and they gave us rides on trolleys, and helped us to make seesaws,
and admitted us into lovely little outhouses containing, among other
treasures, the yellow grease that trains are greased with. And there was the
Hyacinth Den only a stone's-throw from our own door, and the bleach-field
beyond, and beyond that again the Wild Wood. And our own Manse garden
was not to be despised, for did it not look into a field owned by the Huttons
—a clan as wild and lawless as our own, and many a battle took place
between us. They had a friend known to us as 'Wild Scott of the Huttons,' a
truly great and tireless fighter, and if he happened to be visiting them we
never knew when a head would pop up over the wall where the big pear tree
grew, and challenge us to mortal combat. Did you hear that Mark came
across a man in France, tremendously decorated and of high rank, who
turned out to be our old enemy 'Wild Scott of the Huttons'? Besides the
permanent feud with the Huttons, we had many small vendettas with boys
from the town, who stoned Mark on Sundays because they didn't like his
clothes."
Mrs. Douglas laid down her stocking, and said in a bewildered tone:
"I never could understand why you were so pugnacious. You were a
dreadfully bad example to the other children in the place. They say that
ministers' children are generally worse than other people's—on the
principle, I suppose, that 'shoemakers' bairns are aye ill shod,' but I never
saw children more naturally bad than you were—well, not bad, perhaps, but
wild and mischievous to a degree. Your father sometimes said that no one
could doubt the theory of original sin after seeing our family. Alison
sometimes comes to me in her wheedling way and says, 'Gran, do tell me
about your bad children,' and I have to tell her of the time when you
celebrated the Queen's birthday at the coal-pit by setting fire to a lot of
valuable wood and nearly burned the whole place, and the day when we lost

you and found you all in the Panny Pond—literally 'in' it you were, for you
had made a raft and sunk with it into the soft, black mud."
"Yes," said Ann, "I was always sorry after that for 'The Girl who trod on
a Loaf,' for I knew the dreadfulness of sinking down, down."
"I think my dear Robbie was the worst of you all. You others showed
faint signs of improvement, but he never deviated into good behaviour. He
was what is known in Priorsford as 'a notorious ill callant,' and in Fife as 'an
awfu' steerin' bairn.' When I went away for a day or two I had always to
take him with me, for I knew if I left him at home it would be sheer
'battleation,' and yet he had the tenderest heart among you, and Rosamund
said, 'Robbie's the one who has never once been cross to me.' I remember
the first time I took him to church. He disliked the look of the woman who
sat in front, a prim lady, and he suddenly tilted her bonnet over her eyes.
Then he shouted to a well-behaved child in the next seat, 'Bad boy make a
face at me,' and before I could stop him, hurled his shoe at him; and he
announced at the top of his voice, 'Mark and Ann's away to Etterick, but I
don't care a wee, wee button,' and had then to be removed. 'Wheep him,'
Mrs. Beaton used to counsel; but Mrs. Peat always said 'Robbie's a fine
laddie.'"
Ann nodded. "So he was, always. Though he was so turbulent and noisy
he was so uncunning you couldn't but think nobly of the soul. Mark and I
thought of the mischievous things to do, and Robbie threw himself into
them so whole-heartedly that generally he was the one caught and blamed.
The rest of us were better at wriggling out of things. Father was never hard
on us unless we cheated or told lies. He wasn't even angry when the
policeman complained of us—do you remember the one, an elder in our
church, who said in despair to his wife, 'I'll hae to jail thae bairns and leave
the kirk'? One of the few times I ever saw Father really angry was when he
was holding a class for young communicants, and we crept into the cubby-
hole under the stairs, where the meter was, and turned off the gas. Father
emerged from the study like a lion, and caught poor Jim, who had loitered.
The rest of us had gained the attics and were in hiding. It must have been a
great day for the young communicants."

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The Europeans Political Identity In An Emerging Polity David Michael Green

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The Europeans Political Identity In An Emerging Polity David Michael Green

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