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Stealing Horses to Great Applause
The Origins of the First World War Reconsidered
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Brief Description
Stealing Horses to Great Applause 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...
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Stand-out theoretical and empirical explanation of the origins of the First World War by one of the great
historians of international diplomacy
Stand-out theoretical and empirical explanation of the origins of the First World War by one of the great
historians of international diplomacy
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Description
Stealing Horses to Great Applause 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Stealing Horses to Great Applause includes appraisals of Niall Ferguson and A. J. P. Taylor, and an extensive unpublished final paper re-thinking the First World War as "the last 18th-century war".
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781836745563
Publisher: Verso Books
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 16 June 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Verso Books
Contributors:
- Introduction by Perry Anderson
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 24.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 305g
Pages: 384
About the Author
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.
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