P. E. Caquet: The Invention of Realpolitik, 1848¿1871, Gebunden

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What is Realpolitik? How did the concept come about, and what does it stand for? This book explores the origins and meaning of a core precept of international history and politics. Statesmen, diplomats, and analysts alike deploy the term as if it were a timeless label. Endlessly, they suppose, states compete with each other for power in a zero-sum game. Yet Realpolitik was born in Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. The circumstances of its birth are key to its meaning. Realpolitik emerged among Europe s constitutional struggles on the one hand, and the wars of Italian and German unification on the other. Revolutionary disappointment, the end of the Romantic era, and the rise of a new scientific materialism all informed a Realist period of political strongmen. Rather than describing a permanent state of things, this book suggests, Realpolitik is rooted in nineteenth-century European and German politics, and consequently the rise of an aggressive nationalism.