Review: Kevin O’Rourke’s “A Short History of Brexit: From Brentry to Backstop”

“Importantly, he notes that it was initially the Conservative party that embraced European integration and the Labour Party which vehemently opposed it.”

Introduction

The tipping point in the emergence of post-modern conservatism worldwide was 2016. The most spectacular example was, of course, Trump’s election to the most powerful office in the world, despite losing the popular vote to his rival by a considerable degree. No less significant was the Brexit Referendum, where a slim majority of voters cast a ballot for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Since then, British politics has been defined by chaos and unpredictability, with a snap election and constant political shuffling being unable to bring back a semblance of order. At the request of the British government, the deadline for Brexit has been consistently pushed back. Right now, barring unforeseen developments, the United Kingdom is set to finally leave the European Union on October 31st unless a new deal is sorted out. This, of course, has implications for the forthcoming race to replace Theresa May as head of the Conservative Party and, ultimately, Prime Minister. At the moment, the hardliner Boris Johnson seems poised to seize the top job, though he may come to regret that given his party’s collapsing support in the polls. If he comes to power, that may send a clear signal to citizens and the European Union that the United Kingdom is leaving in October one way or another. But it also remains very possible that this could trigger an economic downturn in a country that has already suffered immensely at the mere prospect of leaving the European Union.

The Lead Up to Brexit

Kevin O’Rourke’s book is a timely and even-handed analysis of how the United Kingdom reached such a calamitous point. O’Rourke is currently Professor of Economic History at Oxford University, and, as such, his analysis leans heavily on economic explanations for the referendum and subsequent turmoil. But O’Rourke is also Irish, meaning the book also pays particularly close attention to the impact of Brexit for both the Republic of Ireland—and Northern Ireland, which remains part of the United Kingdom. The story he paints is not pretty, as one gets the sense many Brexiters were either profoundly ignorant of the impact leaving the EU might have on a historically fragmented region. Or, worse, they simply did not care.

For a book on Brexit, surprisingly little of the text actually focuses on recent events. The entire first half of the book is taken up by a history of European integration from the Second World War onwards. While this material is always informative and helpful, it also seems a little general and unfocused given the topic of the book. O’Rourke’s text really kicks into high gear around Chapter Four, where he starts to hone in on the lukewarm British relationship with an ever more unified European continent. O’Rourke observes how the project of European unification was greeted with equal parts concern and applause by the United Kingdom. Winston Churchill called for the formation of a United States of Europe in 1946 and consistently argued for British cooperation with a more unified continent, though he did not believe Britain should necessarily be part of that body. Part of his support for a United States of Europe was motivated by a concern for generating economic prosperity, which is the main focus of O’Rourke’s analysis. But Churchill also gestures to the desire to secure Europe against Soviet attack, as well as the more geopolitical concern of retaining Europe’s power and prestige relative to an ascendant United States.