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SALISBURY, MD--Dr. Dean Kotlowski, assistant professor of history at Salisbury State University, recently edited The European Union: From Jean Monnet to the Euro (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000) - intended for use in upper-division and graduate-level courses on post-1945 Europe and European integration. 

The book, a collection of papers drawn from the 1999 Baker Peace Conference at Ohio University, considers the life, personality and legacy of the French statesman Jean Monnet, one of the architects of the modern European Union (EU). 

In addition to covering Monnet’s life, the book considers the development of social policy within the European Union, the economic and national security implications of EU, and the continuation of a U.S. presence in Europe through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The book explains Monnet - who began his career as a salesman in his family’s cognac firm - was an atypical Frenchman. He was Protestant, an admirer of the United States and Great Britain, and a rival to General Charles De Gaulle. He also despised intellectuals and considered himself to be an outsider in his native land.

One contributor to the book claimed to be the proud owner of an original bottle of J.-G. Monnet cognac. He offered Kotlowski a picture of his treasure for the book but would not surrender the actual bottle; he explained, “There’s still some cognac in it!”

While learning much about Monnet, Kotlowski also gained renewed respect for John Calhoun Baker, president of Ohio University between 1945 and 1962, and his wife, Elizabeth Evans Baker, a crusader for peace and international understanding.

While at Ohio, the Bakers established the Baker Peace Studies Program, which funded the publication of this volume.