The European Inheritance

The British Council, created in 1934 to promote British ‘life and thought’ abroad, was an initiator of the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (CAME) that repeatedly met in London between November 1942 and December 1945 to discuss the role of culture and education in post-war reconstruction. These meetings not only prepared the ground for the creation of UNESCO. One other project resulting from this international cooperation was the publication of The European Inheritance (Clarendon Press 1954), an edited three-volume history of Europe. The chairman of the commission in charge of this project was the political scientist Ernest Barker, known for his reflections on Englishness and involved in British Council activities. What vision of Europe emerges from The European Inheritance? How was it conceived and received? And what can this project tell us about the role of British cultural diplomacy in shaping ideas of a rescued post-war European civilization?