"This invaluable collection of brilliant essays by the greatest international historian of our age is essential reading for all interested in international history and politics." - T.C.W. Blanning, University of Cambridge "These essays are provocative, wonderfully written, drawing on an unrivalled storehouse of historical knowledge and bridging history and social science. Agree or disagree with them, they ... Read moreevoke unstinting admiration. Paul Schroeder is a national scholarly treasure." - Richard Ned Lebow, Dartmouth College "Paul Schroeder is perhaps the most important living North American historian of European diplomacy. His reflections on theory and history are unsurpassed; they have challenged conventional interpretations and have provided original insights about the deeper forces underlying world politics. Scholars and students of history and political science will find in this collection the best of Schroeder's articles from the famous 'Galloping Gertie' thesis and his work on the balance of power and the Vienna Settlement to his most recent essay on counterfactuals and World War I. No college or personal library with a focus on international relations should be without it." - John Vasquez, Picker Chair in International Relations, Colgate University "Paul Schroeder's scholarship provocatively re-examines the critical assumptions and decisions that have preserved peace or squandered it from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Reading Schroeder's work is like playing chess against a grand master who, even as he inexorably moves to defeat you, patiently explains why each of your moves has been deficient. These essays will be fundamental for historians and theorists alike, and invaluable for teaching in the field." - Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University Show Less