Drawing on fifty years of interviews and experience, Homelands tells the epic story of how Europe in the early twenty first century, having emerged from its wartime hell, recovered and rebuilt, liberated and united to come close to the ideal of a Europe 'whole, free and at peace', and then faltered.Homelands is a stunning blend of contemporary history, reportage and memoir by our greatest writer about European affairs.Drawing on half a century of interviews and experience, Homelands tells the story of Europe in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries - how, having emerged from its wartime hell in 1945, it slowly recovered and rebuilt, liberated and united to come close to the ideal of a Europe 'whole, free and at peace'. And then faltered.Humane, expert and deeply felt, Homelands is full of encounters, conversations and anecdote. It is also highly personal: Timothy Garton Ash has spent a lifetime studying and thinking about Europe and this book is full of life itself, from his father's experience on D-Day, to his teenage French exchange, to interviewing Polish dockers, Albanian guerillas and angry teenagers in the poorest quarters of Paris, as well as advising prime ministers, chancellors and presidents in the UK, Europe, and the US.