A Short History of Brexit, Kevin ORourke
A Short History of Brexit, Kevin ORourke
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A Short History of Brexit
From Brentry to Backstop

Author: Kevin O'Rourke

Narrator: Jeremy Clyde

Unabridged: 9 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Pelican

Published: 10/31/2019


Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

After all the debates, manoeuvrings, recriminations and exaltations, Brexit is upon us. But, as Kevin O'Rourke writes, Brexit did not emerge out of nowhere: it is the culmination of events that have been under way for decades and have historical roots stretching back well beyond that. Brexit has a history.

O'Rourke, one of the leading economic historians of his generation, explains not only how British attitudes to Europe have evolved, but also how the EU's history explains why it operates as it does today - and how that history has shaped the ways in which it has responded to Brexit. Why are the economics, the politics and the history so tightly woven together? Crucially, he also explains why the question of the Irish border is not just one of customs and trade, but for the EU goes to the heart of what it is about. The way in which British, Irish and European histories continue to interact with each other will shape the future of Brexit - and of the continent. Calm and lucid, A Short History of Brexit rises above the usual fray of discussions to provide fresh perspectives and understanding of the most momentous political and economic change in Britain and the EU for decades.

About Kevin O'Rourke

Kevin O'Rourke has been seen on the television series Cashmere Mafia, Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, The Good Wife, One Life to Live, Damages, and The Sopranos, among others.  He has appeared in the films Riding in Cars with Boys, The Aviator, and Turbulence.  His audiobook credits include reading Keith Ablow's Murder Suicide, James Patterson's Violets are Blue, and Jim Morris's The Oldest Rookie.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Athan on August 25, 2019

Unashamedly from the Remainer angle, but genuinely trying to be objective, author Kevin O’Rourke argues very convincingly that Theresa May’s (three-times rejected, we now know) deal was 100% motivated by the need to skirt around issues raised by the need to meet three incompatible goals, two of whic......more

Goodreads review by Tom on August 27, 2019

Excellent overview of the historical development of the EU, particularly as it applies to Britain and Ireland. Also the best explanation I have yet seen of the difference between a customs union and a free trade area, including a discussion on how VAT works in the EU. The trilemma of a) no border in......more

Goodreads review by Holly on March 08, 2019

I need to re-read the final two chapters to truly get my head around Brexit to the point I could feel confident discussing it in some detail, but, this book has allowed me to finally feel like I almost understand what’s going on!......more

Goodreads review by WW on March 20, 2019

Today seems timely to finish this. The book ends in December 2018, and in an already chaotic process, doesn’t even describe the pandemonium that is going on right now......more

Goodreads review by Ron on February 01, 2020

O’Rourke’s book makes for fascinating but discouraging reading. By the end I found it impossible to believe that a happy conclusion to Brexit is possible. The Brexiteers have, all along, believed that, either: a) they can have their cake and eat it too (maintaining total access to European markets w......more


Quotes

Valuable on the backstory is Kevin O'Rourke's A Short History of Brexit (Pelican). As an Irish historian who divides his time between a French village and All Souls College, Oxford, O'Rourke is a quintessential Remainer; but he's not blind to the EU's supranational ambitions. Prospect

He recounts the history of British involvement with Europe over the last 60 years with unique concision and clarity. He searches for the motivations behind the Brexit vote, parsing arguments that it was the inevitable result of structural economic factors, that it stemmed from a misplaced backlash against rising inequality, or that it was just a fluke brought about by political miscalculation and opportunism. Ever the professor, O'Rourke hints that all these views contain some truth. Foreign Affairs

Crisp, clear and quietly devastating ... It might indeed be questioned whether such a project is worth doing while the outcome is so uncertain. But O'Rourke's book provides a bracing and absorbing answer. As he puts it towards the end, Brexit has already been "a hugely informative, if costly, civics lesson for the people of Britain, Ireland, and the rest of Europe" and he is superbly well fitted to draw out that lesson for the general reader. Guardian

The 2016 referendum already feels so long ago that it is hard to remember that a longer story was erased and forgotten amid the fevered claims of £350m, 80m Turks and the 'easiest' deal in history. Kevin O'Rourke painstakingly lays out the facts in A Short History of Brexit Financial Times

A Short History of Brexit couldn't have come at a better time ... an excellent and authoritative exploration of the roads to Brexit, one that is erudite, rigorous and highly readable Irish Times

Anyone who has found themselves newly politicised by the convulsions of British politics in general or Brexit in particular will find this a handy primer on the events and undercurrents that led to our present discontent. Anyone who is familiar with that history will find something they knew, but hadn't fully appreciated. Observer