ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the period 1945-1973 when British aloofness from the origins and early evolution of the EU in the 1950s was followed by a reappraisal of British policy resulting in three attempts to secure EU membership. It deals with some of the immediate and medium-term influences that shaped British policy and attitudes towards European integration after the end of the Second World War in 1945. We consider how far treatment of EU membership in this period was influenced by a historically minded, backward-looking perspective involving a network of long-standing ties rather than a forward-looking positive interest in a new project. The chapter examines the conditions and circumstances that first influenced the decision to stay out of the formative stages of the EU, and subsequently had an important bearing on the move towards membership.
