This book concerns the relation between European integration and plans for the construction and use of continental road networks. In linking these two phenomena it draws on recent scholarly work that looks at the ‘hidden integration’ of Europe, a process in which large-scale infrastructure development has played a key role. A core assumption of this approach is that European infrastructural integration was largely organized outside the European Union and its predecessors and began before the Second World War. The thesis unravels which European highway networks were proposed, by whom and why. It also analyzes ideas about the operation of such networks across national borders. Above all, it scrutinizes the political and economic visions underpinning such plans and proposals. The focus on European road network development makes a transnational contribution to the available literature, which usually remains restricted to national developments and does not analyze how infrastructures function across borders.

The book basically covers the entire twentieth century, but devotes most attention to 1920-1960, a period that was unusually rich in proposals of the kind this research seeks to understand. The thesis identifies a set of international organizations, called ‘Europe's system builders,’ as crucial actors for European infrastructure development and a strategic research site offering the archival holdings that allow investigating the relation between roads and Europe. The empirical part of the thesis is built around two parallel sets of chapters entitled ‘Setting the Stage’ (chapters two and five), ‘Roads to Europe’ (chapters three and six), and ‘Driving Europe’ (chapters four and seven).

Chapter two starts in the late nineteenth century. It demonstrates how a series of races between European capitals and early motorized tourism highlighted automobility as a phenomenon that cut across national borders. These activities soon lay bare several problems in the cross-border use of roads. Automobile and touring clubs were among the first to seriously attempt to tackle the problems individual motorists ran into. Although the First World War interrupted their activities, these organizations lay the groundwork for post-war discussions. The chapter ends by discussing the origins of the League of Nations. The Geneva organization has often been portrayed as a failed attempt at international cooperation.