Product Description

This major reinterpretation of the structure and operation of European international politics is the first modern study to cover the entire timespan from 1763 to the revolutions of 1848. Paul Schroeder charts the collapse of the eighteenth- century international balance of power in a series of great systemic wars from 1787 to 1812. He shows how this collapse was followed by the painful construction of a new international system from 1813 to 1815- a system which gave Europe the most peaceful, progressive era of international politics ever experienced. Professor Schroeder challenges the conventioal view that this achievement was based on military victory, the restoration of monarchical authority, and a new balance of power, built on the fear of renewed revolution. The secret of success, argues Schroeder, was in fact the abandonment of competitive eighteenth-century politics in favour of a new political equilibrium- a balance of rights, security, and satisfactions, based upon a genuine, European-wide consensus on the meaning of peace and the kinds of rules and practices needed to sustain it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #929298 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 920 pages

Review
"This nuanced addition to Oxford's well-regarded History of Modern Europe series should stand a long test of time."--Booklist
"It is the highest praise to say that this book is a worthy successor to Taylor's original volume. Sometimes, despite the forty-year gap, Schroeder's insights connect very directly with those of Taylor...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
"Schroeder gives a new and positive interpretation to the concept of the "concert" of Europe."--History Today
"Schroeder delights in iconoclasm. That is part of the charm of this book which makes it such fun to read...stimulating and challenging book."--The Historian

About the Author
Paul Schroeder is author of The Axis Alliance and Japanese-American Relations 1941 (Cornell University Press, 1958), Metternich's Diplomacy at its Zenith 1820-1823 (University of Texas Press, 1962; pbk 1976), and Austria, Great Britain, and the Crimean War: The Destruction of the European Concert (Cornell University Press, 1972). He is on the editorial board of, amongst others, International History Review, and American Historical Review,
and was elected Peace Fellow by the United States Institute of Peace in 1992.