ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE Since the 1970s, environmental issues have become a major concern for European citizens and thus for European politicians. In the same time frame the political sphere in Europe, and in particular within the European Union, has also been undergoing major transformations. Dealing with environmental issues over more than fifty years in a historical perspective enables us to gain a better understanding of these transformations, notably the emergence of a European public sphere and how this is changing decision-making processes. Drawing on recent research results from various disciplines, including history, sociology, law and political sciences, this volume addresses the methodological challenge of a European perspective on a transnational subject - one that is commonly distorted by a national prism. It shows how perceptions of the environment are increasingly converging and how these convergences of views across political or linguistic borders in the long run exert an undeniable influence not only on political debates but also on political decisions across Europe. Revealing European characteristics of perceptions, debates and policies, this volume contributes to a history of Europeanisation beyond the usual political turning points and limits.

London and Paris, the world's two leading financial centres in the nineteenth century, experienced differing fortunes during the twentieth century. While London remained an international financial centre, Paris' influence declined. Yet over the last twenty years deregulation, internationalization, and the advent of the single currency have reactivated their competition in ways reminiscent of their old rivalry before the First World War. This book provides a long-term perspective on the development of each centre, with special attention devoted to the pre-1914 years and to the last decades of the twentieth century, in order to contrast these two eras of globalization. The chapters include both archive-based and synthetic surveys and are written by the leading specialists of the field. This comparison between Europe's two leading capital cities will also provide new insights into two important subjects: the political economy of Britain and France in the twentieth century, and the history of international financial centres. As much as a comparison between London and Paris as international financial centres, this book is an Anglo-French comparison; in other words, it considers, through the prism of finance, several aspects of the two countries' economic, business, social, and political histories. It includes contributions from leading banking, financial, and economic historians, and will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of Financial and Economic History, and the role of London and Paris in particular.

Le bataillon des zouaves pontificaux est cree le 1er janvier 1861 et devient regiment au 1er janvier 1867. Il est constitue d'environ 10 000 volontaires, issus de 25 nationalites differentes, qui seront licencies le 21 septembre 1870. Une fois le conflit termine, de nombreuses associations d'anciens zouaves sont creees au retour des soldats et des journaux lies a ces associations sont fondees. Des rassemblements et des reunions cherchent a perpetuer le souvenir des faits d'armes des combattants demobilises tandis que plusieurs monuments en celebrent l'heroisme. Un veritable imaginaire prend forme a la fin du XIXe siecle. Appartenant a cette internationale " blanche ", d'essence contre-revolutionnaire, les anciens volontaires elaborent le mythe du croise moderne, du martyre et du heros catholique. C'est ici l'imaginaire construit autour des zouaves pontificaux que ce livre se propose d'explorer. Il entend poser des jalons pour mieux comprendre la structuration des reseaux de zouaves, leur ideal de chretiente, leur description d'un " croise du Christ ", leur identite comme groupe et leur quete de legitimite religieuse et sociale, voire politique.

Rien ne parait aujourd'hui plus simple que d'envoyer une carte postale depuis l'etranger ou de joindre par telephone les antipodes. Les reseaux de communication, postaux ou electriques, s'affranchissent non seulement des distances, mais des frontieres. Cet etat de fait n'a rien de naturel ou de techniquement determine. Pour lui donner la forme qu'il a prise, il a certes fallu des moyens materiels, revolutionnes au cours des innovations, mais aussi des accords politiques et techniques. Le present ouvrage est le premier a proposer une histoire, de l'interieur et dans la longue duree, de la cooperation qui a ainsi canalise l'expansion internationale des flux d'information depuis la seconde moitie du XIXe siecle. En suivant les acteurs francais, il plonge dans l'espace meconnu des organisations techniques internationales, avec leurs debats feutres aux lourds enjeux economiques et symboliques, ou se sont articules de maniere originale la souverainete des Etats, le service d'un public transnational et un ideal de rapprochement des peuples. Recit de la mise au monde des reseaux, c'est aussi celui de la mise en reseaux d'une Europe ou les frontieres sont moins des barrieres que des franchissements. Avec au coeur, a la charniere du technique et du diplomatique, la communaute discrete et puissante des experts.