Historians’ Affiliation With the European Integration Process in the 1980s

This article analyses historians’ affiliation with the European integration process in the 1980s through a specific case study, namely the Association of European Historians (AEH). The study considers the AEH’s connections with the European Communities (EC), particularly the European Parliament (EP), and a major conference held in 1983 on the roots, cultures, and ideas of Europe. This contribution first examines the preliminary stages of the AEH within EC institutions’ educational and cultural policies in the early 1980s. Then, the AEH pattern is analysed in the light of the EC’s commitment to European history. The study also compares AEH with other networks of the period, especially the Liaison Committee of European Historians. Finally, it assesses the AEH’s progressive detachment from EC institutions since 1985. The article concludes that the AEH supported the European integration process in the 1980s as a noninstitutionalized actor through, at the minimum, a partial bottom-up process.