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Stealing Horses to Great Applause: The Origins of the First World War Reconsidered (Hardback)
  • Stealing Horses to Great Applause: The Origins of the First World War Reconsidered (Hardback)
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Stealing Horses to Great Applause: The Origins of the First World War Reconsidered (Hardback)

(author), (author of introduction)
£30.00
Hardback 384 Pages
Published: 18/02/2025
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Stealing Horses presents arguably the finest considerations yet of the origins of the First World War. Breaking with accounts which focus on the actions of a single state or the final countdown to hostilities, Paul W. Schroeder describes the systemic crisis engulfing the Great Powers. They were more interested in colonial plunder overseas ('stealing horses to great applause', in the old Spanish adage) than the traditional statecraft of European peace-making. Preserving the balance of power required preserving all the essential actors in it, including a tottering Austria-Hungary. This the British in particular failed to recognise. The Central Powers may have started the War but that does not mean they in any real sense caused it. In the end Schroeder recalls the verdict of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: 'All are punished'.

Stealing Horses includes appraisals of Niall Ferguson and A. J. P. Taylor, and an extensive unpublished final paper re-thinking the First World War as 'the last 18th-century war'.

With an Introduction by Perry Anderson.

Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 9781804295793
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 449 g
Dimensions: 234 x 153 x 27 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

He has made as good a case as has been made in recent years for treating international history as an important discipline in its own right - Times Literary Supplement

Probably the foremost expert on the history of international politics in the world - Lothar Höbelt, International History Review

A powerful intellect, a meticulous and innovative researcher who transformed his field - Katherine Aaslestad, Perspectives on History, the news magazine of the American Historical Association

Perhaps the most distinguished diplomatic historian of his generation - Marc Trachtenberg, H-Diplo

How had the world by 1914 become susceptible to a disastrous systemic breakdown? The one American historian who rose to this analytical challenge was Paul Schroeder. These historical insights have an obvious urgency today - Nicholas Mulder, Financial Times

Perhaps the most distinguished diplomatic historian of his generation. He thought hard about the fundamental issues he was concerned with. What he had to say was always stimulating, always worth reading - Marc Trachtenberg, H-Diplo

Few knew old Europe as intimately as Schroeder did. His cogent argument concerning the centrality of international relations is one which historians of all stripes ignore at their peril - Thomas Otte, author of Statesman of Europe

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