{"product_id":"stealing-horses-to-great-applause-isbn-9781804295793","title":"Stealing Horses to Great Applause","description":"\u003cb\u003eStand-out theoretical and empirical explanation of the origins of the First World War by one of the great historians of international diplomacy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eStealing Horses to Great Applause\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eStealing Horses to Great Applause \u003c\/i\u003eincludes appraisals of Niall Ferguson and A. J. P. Taylor, and an extensive unpublished final paper rethinking the First World War as \"the last 18th-century war.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith an introduction by Perry Anderson.Introduction, \u003ci\u003ePerry Anderson\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e PART I\u003cbr\u003e 1. World War I as Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak\u003cbr\u003e 2. International Politics, Peace and War, 1815–1914\u003cbr\u003e 3. Embedded Counterfactuals and World War I as an Unavoidable War\u003cbr\u003e 4. Stealing Horses to Great Applause: Austria-Hungary’s Decision in 1914 in Systemic Perspective\u003cbr\u003e 5. World War I and the Vienna System: The Last Eighteenth-Century War and the First Modern Peace\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART II\u003cbr\u003e 6. Romania and the Great Powers before 1914\u003cbr\u003e 7. Prudence vs Recklessness: Assessing Responsibility for World War I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART III\u003cbr\u003e 8. World War I: A Tragedy, not a Pity\u003cbr\u003e 9. A. J. P. Taylor’s International System\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndex\u003c\/i\u003e\"A historian of remarkable chronological breadth and a fiercely independent mind. Great historians have a life, and they have an afterlife. Paul W. Schroeder’s may just have begun\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Nicholas Mulder, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Probably the foremost expert on the history of international politics in the world\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Lothar Höbelt, \u003ci\u003eInternational History Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A powerful intellect, a meticulous and innovative researcher who transformed his field\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Katherine Aaslestad, \u003ci\u003ePerspectives on History, the news magazine of the American Historical Association\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Marc Trachtenberg, \u003ci\u003eH-Diplo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Thomas Otte, author of \u003ci\u003eStatesman of Europe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A kaleidoscopic set of essays on the European state system in the century leading up to and during the Great War… written with calm and analytical rigor.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Mathias Fuelling, \u003ci\u003eJacobin\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A gem that calls into question some of the standard interpretations of the war’s origins and its outbreak.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Thomas Parker, \u003ci\u003eH-Diplo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003ePaul W. Schroeder is the author of, among other things, \u003ci\u003eThe Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848 in the Oxford History of Modern Europe\u003c\/i\u003e. He taught history and political science at the University of Illinois for many years and died in 2020 at the age of ninety-three.","brand":"Verso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299821408485,"sku":"NP9781804295793","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781804295793.jpg?v=1767737292","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/stealing-horses-to-great-applause-isbn-9781804295793","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}