This title offers a history of Europe as a continent of refugees. European history has been permeated with refugees, and this book chronicles every major refugee movement since 1492, when the Catholic rulers of Spain set in motion the first mass flight and expulsion in modern European history. The author provides needed perspective on today's refugee crisis,
demonstrating how Europe has taken in far greater numbers of refugees in earlier periods of its history, in wartime as well as peacetime. He examines the major causes, perils and traumas of mass flight, reasons they have been welcomed or rejected at different times, and their afterlives in receiving countries, which almost always benefited from admitting them. Tracing the lengthy routes of the refugees, he reconceptualizes Europe as a unit of geography and historiography. Turning to the U.S., he also discusses the anti-refugee politics of the Trump administration, explaining why they are un-American and bad for the country.