A.
A01=Paul W. Schroeder
Anderson
Austria
Author_Paul W. Schroeder
Britain
Category=DNL
Category=JPS
Category=NHWR5
Christopher
Clark
Ended
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Europe
Evans
Ferguson
France
Germany
historiography
Ian
J.
John
Keegan
Kennedy
Kershaw
Macmillan
Margaret
Mark
Mazower
Meaning
military
P
Paul
Peace
Perry
Power
Pursuit
Richard
Russia
Second
sleepwalkers
Taylor
technology
Product details
- ISBN 9781804295793
- Weight: 449g
- Dimensions: 153 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 18 Feb 2025
- Publisher: Verso Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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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Stealing Horses includes appraisals of Niall Ferguson and A. J. P. Taylor, and an extensive unpublished final paper re-thinking the First World War as 'the last 18th-century war'.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.
Stealing Horses includes appraisals of Niall Ferguson and A. J. P. Taylor, and an extensive unpublished final paper re-thinking the First World War as 'the last 18th-century war'.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.
Paul W. Schroeder was professor of history and political science at the University of Illinois. His works included Austria, Great Britain and the Crimean War: The Destruction of the European Concert and The Transformation of European Politics, 1763-1848. He died in 2020 at the age of 93. Verso is publishing two volumes of his writings, America Abroad and Stealing Horses to Great Applause.
