What makes a European?

Is it being white, Christian, into football?

Is it simply having the good fortune not to be born American?

The boundaries of Europe have never been easy to define.

I mean, sure, westwards, it's obvious.

You've got a great honking Atlantic Ocean over there.

But eastwards, you just find yourself shading into Asia,

not really knowing where that started.

It was the ancient Greeks who set the boundary at the Hellespont, but that's only because

the Persians kept trying to cross it. Roderick Beaton's new book, Europe, A New History, takes us from

the Battle of Marathon thousands of years ago, right through to the present day. And throughout

each chapter, he's examining how kings and emperors and

politicians and, yes, historians have tried to define a coherent idea of Europe into existence,

to serve a variety of purposes. I don't think that I can do this fascinating read much justice in the form of an

introduction. So take my word for it and watch the interview. Roderick Beaton, welcome to

Downstream. Thank you for having me. It's a great pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us. I've got

to say, I had immense fun reading this book, and I'd like to see someone who's doing

some really serious research and making a serious argument also have fun with the way in which

they wrote the prose.

Well, I'm delighted to hear you say that, and I hope readers will take the same view.

Because, you know, I start out from the principle that history needs to be,

history is a story and it needs to be written as a story. It's not just a catalogue of facts.

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