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2., resp. 3. wohl unveränd. (neu-) Auflage. 2 vols. (cpl.). 8°. IX, 438 u. VIII, 1 Bl., 447 SS. OFein-Ln. (dunkelgrün; Kapitale etwas bestossen) mit versilb. Rückentitel u. OU (dieser v.a. in den Kapitalen bestossen, Rücken gebräunt). Vorsätze mit Bräunungsabklatschen, äusserste Lagen unterschiedlich etwas stockfleckig. Leichtere Alters-, Lagerungs- u. Manipulationsspuren, weniger eigentliche Gebrauchsspuren. Gesamthaft weitestgehend sauberes, praktisch ungelesenes Exemplar. - - First Published : Vol. I: January 1936, Vol. II: 1938 - So digitalis. in Internet Archive - Brit.Lib. unspecified for Edition 1938, Lending Collection, Shelfmark W93/0414, resp. W49/0232 - "The chronological development of the European situation during the opening years of the twentieth century has been traced by competent scholars in many lands. The purpose of the prensent work is to survey the familiar scene from a less familiar angle. With the opening of the archives of all the Great European Powers except Italy it has become possible to reconstruct the story of the coming of the [First World] war in minute detail from the standpoint of the principal actors. Bismarck used to say that true history could not be written from official documents, since the historian is not always aware what was in the mind of their authors. It is eqally true that history cannot be written without them. [.] No period in the history of mankind is so intimately known to us as Bismarckian and post-Bismarckian Europe." (Vol. I, Preface p. V). -- CONTENTS (short version) : Vol. I: 1. [Lord Henry Ch. K. Petty-Fitzmaurice] Lansdowne, 2. [Théophile] Delcassé, 3. [Bernhard Fürst von] Bülow, 4. [Alexander Petrowitsch] Iswolsky, 5. [Alois Lexa Graf von] Aehrenthal / Vol. II: 1. Grey [Edward, 1. Viscount Grey of Fallodon], 2. [Raymond] Poincaré, 3. [Theobald von] Bethmann-Hollweg, 4. [Sergei Dmitrijewitsch] Sazonow, 5. [Leopold Graf] Berchtold - "In their main decisions and achievements the Foreign Ministers here described were the spokesmen of national aspirations or demands. All of them were men of ability; none of them were supermen. Some worked for change, others for the maintenance of the status quo [.]. All played the same game of 'Machtpolitik' with different skill and success. Nobody dreamed of renouncing war as an instrument of national policy, and the rattle of the sword was never far away; for Europe was nothing than a geographical expression, and there were no recognised rules of the game." (I, p. VI). -- George Peabody Gooch (London 1873-1968 ibid.), English historian of modern diplomacy. "His most important contribution to diplomatic history was his stress on the publication of original documents as opposed to historical narratives slanted to the ends of governments or nations." (archives.history.ac uk, Historians, online). - In the "early nineteen-twenties, Gooch personified contemporary history [.]. [.] He sought to convince by the weight of evidence, which was already abundant and of which he always seemed the complete master. [.] Of course, contemporary history in those days was almost entirely diplomatic history, and to the younger historians of the post-war decade Gooch's quiet deployment of an essentially negative theme - that the evidence did not justify this or that war-guilt thesis - made a great appeal. [.] His two volumes, Before the War, [.] were a major work, which by its biographical form focussed attention on personal responsibilities." (etc.; W. N. Medlicott, in: Sage Journals, Journal of Contemporary History, 4/1, 1969). - Resp. "Such was his political influence that during the First World War, he was employed by the history department of the Foreign Office and was requested to prepare materials to accompany the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919-1920." (heritage.humanists uk, online; cf. Munzinger Archiv: "Seine Mitwirkung an der gewaltigen Aktenpublikation zur britischen Außenpolitik zwischen 1898 und 1914 und über die Ursachen. Seller Inventory # H080484
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