Even before the financial crisis that began in 2007, scholars and pundits alike mused about Britain's "strange" relationship with the European Union, asking why the UK has failed to join its neighbors and adopt the euro. Existing answers do more to muddle than provide clarity or guidance as to the answer. Ophelia Eglene provides a much needed contribution to this discussion. Using a vast array of quantitative and qualitative evidence she demonstrates how economic self interest as much as history and cultural ties to the pound explain Britain's reluctance to join the eurozone. Her book will be of great interest to economists, political scientists and historians who are interested in understanding individual and social factors that drive international economic policy.

David Leblang, University of Virginia

In Banking on Sterling, Ophelia Eglene analyzes the political economy of British government policy toward the European Monetary System and the euro zone. She traces the trajectory of British policy from 1990 through 2007, demonstrating the impact of industrial and financial interests, as well as public opinion. Eglene grounds her analysis carefully in existing theoretical approaches, and brings to bear important evidence drawn both from the historical record and from original interviews with many of the principals. Banking on Sterling is particularly effective in demonstrating how the political economy of British policy changed over time as circumstances evolved. This book is a very valuable contribution to our understanding of the politics and economics of the euro, and of the European Union more broadly. It will also be read with great profit by anyone interested in the political economy of currency policy, and of foreign economic policy in general.

Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University

Eglene, a political scientist, follows [the United Kingdom's currency] events since 1990 and focuses on the United Kingdom's deliberations on joining the euro-that is, abolishing sterling altogether. She concludes that both the views of the United Kingdom's financial sector and official anxiety about it, rather than ideology or public opinion, played the decisive role in the country's procrastination with respect to joining the eurozone.

Foreign Affairs