Sunday’s Children: Europeans, War and Peace
Essential and highly relevant reading about the prospect of war, peace in Europe and lessons from the past, as told by one of the continent’s leading correspondents
Following the devastation of World War II, there was a universal belief that Europe – and the wider world – would never endure bloodshed again. How have eighty years of peace affected us and this once belligerent continent? And what happens when peace can no longer be taken for granted? In Sunday’s Children, correspondent Caroline de Gruyter researches what Europe has forgotten and is at present rapidly relearning now that the illusion of permanent peace has been shattered.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the spectre of war has returned to the continent. This has been a wake-up call for Europeans, who now face a reality they thought impossible: the threat of a global war after eighty years of peace. Old ideas of war and violence have been upended, governments have begun to rearm, and all European countries have ramped up their defence budgets. And crucially, Europe now realizes more than ever how important the Union – unity – truly is.
Caroline de Gruyter’s intensely sharp observations show how eight decades of peace have shaped our European societies, and which patterns and assumptions have become entrenched in a continent that pledged ‘never again’ and truly believed it.
Press reviews of her previous book It Won’t Get Any Better
Caroline de Gruyter is a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch daily newspaper NRC. Since 1999, she has published works about European politics, won several prizes and was twice nominated for the European Press Prize. She is also a columnist for Foreign Policy, De Standaard and EUobserver as well as a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She has written five books on the topics of democracy, globalisation and shifting interpretations of sovereignty. Her bestseller Beter wordt het niet; een reis door de Europese Unie en het Habsburgse Rijk (It Won’t Get any Better) (2021) was translated into English, French, German, Swedish and Hungarian.