Since his first book, "WeEuropeans", came onto the market seven years ago, Hill has had the opportunity to address audiences of students, undergraduates and graduates totalling over 10.000 young people of every European nationality.

In discussing European issues with them, he discovered that these young people have largely disengaged from conventional politics. They regard politicians with, at best, disinterest and, at worst, distaste or disrespect. This attitude is prevalent across all western European countries, with the possible exception of the Netherlands and Ireland.

Hill concludes : "The world has changed massively in the last fifty years, but western Europe still lives with the threat of social dislocation. Then, the problem was the divides that separated countries and cultures. Us was the mother-country, Them was the rest. Now, the dislocation is within countries and cultures, the growing gulf between Europe's young people and the society they were born into. Today Us is Europe's youth and Them is the rest of us".

Hill's conclusions are supported by the findings of national and international opinion studies, reviewed in detail in the book.

This is an astonishing book, not only because of the superbly lucid and vigorous writing, but also because the thoughts are equally rigorous and right in both form and substance. I have recommended it to my students.

Adelino Torres, Professor, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa