Book blurbs are notoriously cliché and vacuous. Here’s an exception from Mark Lilla:

We know there are Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and Poles—but are there Europeans? Yes, at least one: Timothy Garton Ash. Homelands is the brilliant, captivating story of how he became one.

I find that impossible to improve upon and all that need suffice as a review, too.

Is the United Kingdom in Europe? How much of Europe is even in Europe? As Ash notes in Homelands (2023), his recent memoir: “…European countries have a long history of existential uncertainty about their full belonging to Europe.” Europe may not be certain of itself but Ash definitely is—at least in a way that I cannot imagine an American or a Canadian attempting about their respective federations, as that would ultimately require an effort to tread and take in the whole of the place.

Here’s a stand-alone thought we ought to keep in mind: “The gamble of civilisation is that we can learn from the past without having to go through it all again ourselves.”