When European Studies Meets The American Civilizing Process: A Short Tribute to Stephen J. Mennell

Abstract

This paper proposes a comparative reading of Stephen Mennell’s book The American Civilizing Process (2007) and of some major texts from the Norbert Elias’s political sociology. It is based on personal teaching experience of using this corpus with students in the humanities and law since 2013 in the framework of a course entitled ‘Historical Sociology of European Integration’. The author aims to highlight three dimensions that are innovatively explored in Stephen Mennell’s book and which help to improve the understanding of European political development. The first point concerns the benefits of comparison in along-term comprehensive approach. The second is related to the sociological treatment of political theories and ideas that is proposed by Stephen Mennell in his book and which should be transposed into the political sociology of the European Union, which too often counter-poses apologetics and Eurosceptic perspectives about the European project. Finally, The American Civilizing Process proposes and explicitly assumes acritical perspective on the politics of the United States that also may inspire political reflections on contemporary European politics.