The steadfast alliance between America and Europe represents one of the most important and complex political relationships in the modern world. But with the end of the Cold War, America and Europe seem to be drifting apart. In Between Empire and Alliance, scholars from both sides of the Atlantic examine the most intense phase of the Cold Warthe quarter century from 1950 to 1974to explore the ever-changing relationship between the United States and Europe. At the height of the Cold War, America took on the role of Europe's great protector, but rather than create a sense of safety for the Europeans, this dependence on an outside power for protection became the source of great anxiety in Europe. Using archival documents that have only recently become available, the contributors consider the political, social, and economic implications of specific American policies on European nations and, more importantly, the role of American support in the drive for European unification. Providing a picture of U.S.-European relations both during the Cold War and today, Between Empire and Alliance sheds new light on the future of America and Europe.

Marc Trachtenberg is professor of political science at University of California, Los Angeles and is the author of A Constructed Peace: The Making of the European Settlement, 1945-1963.

Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 2 America, Europe, and German Rearmament, August-September 1950: A Critique of a MythChapter 3 A General Named Eisenhower: Atlantic Crisis and the Origins of the European Economic CommunityChapter 4 Trigger-happy Protestant Materialists? The European Christian Democrats and the United StatesChapter 5 The United States and the Opening to the Left, 1953-1963Chapter 6 Hegemony or Vulnerability? Giscard, Ball, and the 1962 Gold Standstill ProposalChapter 7 Western Europe and the American Challenge: Conflict and Cooperation in Technology and Monetary Policy, 1965-1973Chapter 8 Georges Pompidou and U.S.-European Relations