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of the Institute on Communist Affairs, Columbia University; Mr. William Manchester, author of The House of Krupp; Professor Arthur Marder, editor of the letters of Sir John Fisher; Mr. George Painter, the biographer of Proust; Mr. A. L. Rowse, author of an introduction to the work of Graham Wallas; Miss Helen Ruskell and the staff of the New York Society Library; Mr. Thomas K. Scherman, director of the Little Orchestra Society; Mrs. Janice Shea for information about the circus in Germany; Professor Reba Soffer of San Fernando Valley State College for information on Wilfred Trotter; Mr. Joseph C. Swidler, chairman of the Federal Power Commission; and Mr. Louis Untermeyer, editor, among much else, of Modern British Poetry. Equal gratitude extends to the many others who gave me verbal aid of which I kept no record.

For help in finding certain of the illustrations I am indebted to Mr. A. J. Ubels of the Royal Archives at The Hague; to the staffs of the Art and Print Rooms of the New York Public Library; and to Mr. and Mrs. Harry Collins of Brown Brothers.

I would like to express particular thanks to two indefatigable readers of the proofs, Miss Jessica Tuchman and Mr. Timothy Dickinson, for improvements and corrections, respectively; and to Mrs. Esther Bookman, who impeccably typed the manuscript of both this and my previous book, The Guns of August.

BARBARA W. TUCHMAN

Contents

Cover

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

Foreword

1 THE PATRICIANS

England: 1895–1902

2 THE IDEA AND THE DEED

The Anarchists: 1890–1914

3 END OF A DREAM

The United States: 1890–1902

4 “GIVE ME COMBAT!”

France: 1894–99

5 THE STEADY DRUMMER

The Hague: 1899 and 1907

6 “NEROISM IS IN THE AIR”

Germany: 1890–1914

7 TRANSFER OF POWER

England: 1902–11

8 THE DEATH OF JAURÈS

The Socialists: 1890–1914

Afterword

References

About the Author

Illustrations

FOLLOWING THIS PAGE

5.1 Lord Salisbury

5.2 Lord Ribblesdale by Sargent, 1902

5.3 The Wyndham sisters by Sargent, 1899

5.4 Chatsworth

5.5 Prince Peter Kropotkin

5.6 Editorial office of La Révolte

5.7 “Slept in That Cellar Four Years”: photograph by Jacob Riis, about 1890

5.8 “Lockout”: original title “l’Attentat du Pas de Calais,” by Théophile Steinlen, from Le Chambard Socialiste,” Dec. 16, 1893

5.9 Thomas B. Reed

5.10 Captain (later Admiral) Alfred Thayer Mahan

5.11 Charles William Eliot

5.12 Samuel Gompers

5.13 The mob during Zola’s trial: original title “Les Moutons de Boisdeffre,” by Steinlen, from La Feuille, Feb. 28, 1898

5.14 The “Syndicate”: original title “Le Pouvoir Civil,” by Forain, from Psst!, June 24, 1899

5.15 “Allegory”: by Forain, from Psst!, July 23, 1898

5.16 “Truth Rising from Its Well,” by Caran d’Ache, from Psst!, June 10, 1899

5.17 British delegation to The Hague, 1899

5.18 Paris Exposition, 1900: Porte Monumentale and the Palace of Electricity

5.20 Alfred Nobel

5.21 Bertha von Suttner

5.22 The Krupp works at Essen, 1912

5.23 Richard Strauss

5.24 Friedrich Nietzsche watching the setting sun, Weimar, 1900

5.25 A beer garden in Berlin

5.26 Nijinsky as the Faun: design by Léon Bakst

5.27 Arthur James Balfour

5.28 Coal strike, 1910: mine owners arriving at 10 Downing Street

5.29 Seaman’s strike, 1911

5.30 David Lloyd George

5.31 August Bebel

5.32 Keir Hardie

5.33 “Strike,” painting by Steinlen

5.34 Jean Jaurès

Foreword

The epoch whose final years are the subject of this book did not die of old age or accident but exploded in a terminal crisis which is one of the great facts of history. No mention of that crisis appears in the following pages for the reason that, as it had not yet happened, it was not a part of the experience of the people of this book. I have tried to stay within the terms of what was known at the time.

The Great War of 1914–18 lies like a band of scorched earth dividing that time from ours. In wiping out so many lives which would have been operative on the years that followed, in destroying beliefs, changing ideas, and leaving incurable wounds of disillusion,