Europe Beyond Your Means

Not your typical travel guide, Europe Beyond Your Means: The Paris Edition presents satirical advice for the discerning traveler who shuns the idea of prepackaged, budget-focused travel tips and instead craves permission to break from the tourist norm, discard the fanny pack, and embrace social commentary. Authors Conrad Lucas and William Norgard have created an original and amusing travel guide that lampoons other traditional, mainstream travel guides while sharing travel suggestions, witty observations, and relevant anecdotes about the endearing quirks of the French, the Parisian culture, and how to have fun in one of the worlds most celebrated cities. Youll learn how to find a great place to stay, prepare for inconveniences, dress for cultural success, avoid etiquette blunders, and develop a Parisian disposition. For those ready to abandon the preconceived notions and traditional methods of travel and seek out Paris in a unique way, Europe Beyond Your Means is the perfect companion for knowledgeable travelers who also want to laugh a little along the way.

"Europe Beyond Your Means" is a hilarious and satirical travel guide focused on understanding Parisian culture and enhancing the overall experience of visiting one of the world's most celebrated cities. Complete with travel suggestions, witty observations and relevant narratives of a nature that you won't find in typical travel literature, this book is guaranteed to augment any visit to Paris. By pointing out the endearing quirks of the French and the throngs of tourists who visit each year, "Europe Beyond Your Means" takes readers through the essential vacation steps of packing, arrival, necessary activities, cultural realizations and the difficult acceptance of having to eventually return home. This book is written for those who seek the most out of travel by trying to grasp the local culture and do not always feel accounted for by guides propagating the widely popular "ten-dollar-a-day" approach. In short, "Europe Beyond Your Means" is a must have companion piece for any erudite traveler to Paris who wants to laugh a little along the way.

"Garon's insightful and provocative new book couldn't be more important, and couldn't be more timely. The prosperity of Americans, and America, now depends on creating a nation of savers and investors, and Garon shows us the way by bringing the experience and lessons of nations worldwide right into our hands."--Ray Boshara, senior fellow, "New America Foundation."

This edited volume presents a critique of citizenship as exclusively and even originally a European or 'Western' institution. It explores the ways in which we may begin to think differently about citizenship as political subjectivity.

For many Westerners, Eastern Europe is about as appealing as a deodorant-free French armpit. That didn't scare Francis Tapon because not only did he learn how to rough it by walking across America four times, but he is also half French, so he kind of smells too. Francis spent nearly 3 years travelling and backpacking in 25 Eastern European countries. It started with a 5-month trip in 2004. He returned in 2008 to spend 3 years exploring all the countries again. The Hidden Europe is Book Two of the WanderLearn Series.

This book argues that security and defense have never been true priorities in the European Union, and have constantly been marginalized by the elites since the Soviet Union collapsed and the Warsaw Pact disintegrated. Despite the official rhetoric, only a few tangible results can be presented concerning the operational readiness of European forces, and the EU’s inability to act was proven during the crises in the Balkans, NATO has experienced similar problems, as the majority of its members are EU countries. Both organizations have declared their resolve concerning the security and defense of their nations and territories, but, unfortunately, little has been done to lend these statements credence. In this context, the book analyzes several aspects of EU security and defense, including: the EU – NATO relationship, common defense policy and strategy, common capability building, common understanding of strategic changes, common operational planning and centrally synchronized exercises based on operational planning, etc. The member states have helped to make EU/NATO effective organizations, but unfortunately their individual interests and priorities constitute real challenges. This aspect should be discussed and addressed by political and military elites, scholars, analysts, students and the general public alike.

Three times in the few years since the global financial crisis erupted, the euro has come close to extinction, endangering both the world economy and history's most ambitious project in shared sovereignty. Yet each time, the case for a common currency proved to be more compelling than its weaknesses, and the euro survived. Saving Europe reveals how the nexus of international economics and national politics pushed monetary union to the brink of a breakup, how that disastrous development was avoided, and why the long-term viability of a common currency challenges politics as we know it. Carlo Bastasin reveals and analyzes what has been happening behind the scenes in European negotiations since the financial crisis began with the collapse of major financial institutions in 2008. He argues that the crisis in the euro zone actually has a political origin, having emerged from the self-interested abuses of national politics. Moreover, the crisis is reinforced even now by the obstinate defense of national prerogatives in politics and finance as well as by the lack of commitment for shared or supranational sovereignty. While the prevalent view is that monetary union was a flawed project from the start and is in need of amending, Bastasin shows that the failures have to do almost entirely with national opportunism—not only in Greece but in most countries, including Germany—and concludes that the crisis will lead to Europe's political union. Bastasin's work is an engrossing historical chronicle, interweaving moments of high drama with individual personalities on the world stage. German ChancellorAngela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and national and European central bankers, among others, play key roles. Saving Europe is also a rigorous attempt to make larger sense of what has happened in the euro zone and what might happen next. Given the central importance of Europe within the fragile world economy as well as growing speculation

Brexit will have significant consequences for the country, for Europe, and for global order. And yet much discussion of Brexit in the UK has focused on the causes of the vote and on its consequences for the future of British politics. This volume examines the consequences of Brexit for the future of Europe and the European Union, adopting an explicitly regional and future-oriented perspective missing from many existing analyses. Drawing on the expertise of 28 leading scholars from a range of disciplines, Brexit and Beyond offers various different perspectives on the future of Europe, charting the likely effects of Brexit across a range of areas, including institutional relations, political economy, law and justice, foreign affairs, democratic governance, and the idea of Europe itself. Whilst the contributors offer divergent predictions for the future of Europe after Brexit, they share the same conviction that careful scholarly analysis is in need – now more than ever – if we are to understand what lies ahead for the EU. Praise for Brexit and Beyond 'a wide-ranging and thought-provoking tour through the vagaries of British exit, with the question of Europe’s fate never far from sight...Brexit is a wake-up call for the EU. How it responds is an open question—but respond it must. To better understand its options going forward you should turn to this book, which has also been made free online.' Prospect Magazine 'This book explores wonderfully well the bombshell of Brexit: is it a uniquely British phenomenon or part of a wider, existential crisis for the EU? As the tensions and complexities of the Brexit negotiations come to the fore, the collection of essays by leading scholars will prove a very valuable reference for their depth of analysis, their lucidity, and their outlining of future options.' - Kevin Featherstone, Head of the LSE European Institute, London School of Economics 'Brexit and Beyond is a must read. It moves the ongoing debate about what Brexit actually means to a whole new level. While many scholars to date have examined the reasons for the British decision to leave, the crucial question of what Brexit will mean for the future of the European project is often overlooked. No longer. Brexit and Beyond bundles the perspectives of leading scholars of European integration. By doing so, it provides a much needed scholarly guidepost for our understanding of the significance of Brexit, not only for the United Kingdom, but also for the future of the European continent.' - Catherine E. De Vries, Professor in the department of Government, University of Essex and Professor in the department of Political Science and Public Administration Free University Amsterdam 'Brexit and Beyond provides a fascinating (and comprehensive) analysis on the how and why the UK has found itself on the path to exiting the European Union. The talented cast of academic contributors is drawn from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise and this provides a breadth and depth to the analysis of Brexit that is unrivalled. The volume also provides large amounts of expert-informed speculation on the future of both the EU and UK and which is both stimulating and anxiety-inducing.' -Professor Richard Whitman, Head of School, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Director of the Global Europe Centre, University of Kent