INTEGRATED EUROPE?

The answer to the question implied in the title would seem to be ""No"". Dr. Florinsky -- with a deep rooted conviction that an integrated Europe is the sole answer to the Russian menace- here explores the numerous efforts that have been made and failed and in summary concludes that only those international institutions attempted in Europe with no supranational features proved workable. Thus we have to accept- for the time being at least- that cooperation, of which there is great evidence, and not integration is today's answer. He feels we have used imagination and exercised flexibility in trying first one project, then another in Europe (and wishes the same were true in Asia). The chief value of this rather depressing and difficult book lies in the bringing together of not only the chief projects (the Marshall Plan, NATO, the steps taken to make Germany a sovereign state with a national army) but many others that have proved unworkable, chief among them, the Council of Europe, E.D.C., etc. Only military defense has progressed; for the moment political and economic integration is unrealistic. A profound student of European affairs, Dr. Florinsky has given us a thoughtful assessment, albeit a discouraging one to all who feel with him that integration must come. But the book lacks the spark to fire the public.