The Invention of Realpolitik 1848���1871

<p>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.</p>