ABSTRACT
How did a working class boy from Liverpool, variously called Michael, Mike, Mick and Mickey during his juvenile years, become not only a university professor specializing in the history and politics of federalism but also a committed federalist in the way that he understands the world? My identical twin brother, Tony, and I were the first in our family to go to university in the late 1960s and come from a generation that acquired the benefit of higher education completely funded by the local authority in Liverpool because our financial circumstances were dire. We both prospered and learned to develop our social skills in an environment unmatched for personal development, social integration and economic self-discipline.
