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Stealing Horses to Great Applause

The Origins of the First World War Reconsidered

Author Paul W. Schroeder
Introduction by Perry Anderson
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Verso Books | Verso
On sale Feb 18, 2025 | 400 Pages | 9781804295816
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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

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Stealing Horses to Great Applause includes appraisals of Niall Ferguson and A. J. P. Taylor, and an extensive unpublished final paper rethinking the First World War as "the last 18th-century war."

With an introduction by Perry Anderson.
"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
Paul W. Schroeder is the author of, among other things, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848 in the Oxford History of Modern Europe. He taught history and political science at the University of Illinois for many years and died in 2020 at the age of ninety-three.
Paul W. Schroeder View titles by Paul W. Schroeder
Introduction, Perry Anderson

PART I
1. World War I as Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak
2. International Politics, Peace and War, 1815–1914
3. Embedded Counterfactuals and World War I as an Unavoidable War
4. Stealing Horses to Great Applause: Austria-Hungary’s Decision in 1914 in Systemic Perspective
5. World War I and the Vienna System: The Last Eighteenth-Century War and the First Modern Peace

PART II
6. Romania and the Great Powers before 1914
7. Prudence vs Recklessness: Assessing Responsibility for World War I

PART III
8. World War I: A Tragedy, not a Pity
9. A. J. P. Taylor’s International System

Acknowledgments
Index

About

Stand-out theoretical and empirical explanation of the origins of the First World War by one of the great historians of international diplomacy

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 rethinking the First World War as "the last 18th-century war."

With an introduction by Perry Anderson.

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

Author

Paul W. Schroeder is the author of, among other things, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848 in the Oxford History of Modern Europe. He taught history and political science at the University of Illinois for many years and died in 2020 at the age of ninety-three.
Paul W. Schroeder View titles by Paul W. Schroeder

Table of Contents

Introduction, Perry Anderson

PART I
1. World War I as Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak
2. International Politics, Peace and War, 1815–1914
3. Embedded Counterfactuals and World War I as an Unavoidable War
4. Stealing Horses to Great Applause: Austria-Hungary’s Decision in 1914 in Systemic Perspective
5. World War I and the Vienna System: The Last Eighteenth-Century War and the First Modern Peace

PART II
6. Romania and the Great Powers before 1914
7. Prudence vs Recklessness: Assessing Responsibility for World War I

PART III
8. World War I: A Tragedy, not a Pity
9. A. J. P. Taylor’s International System

Acknowledgments
Index

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