The War of the World: History's Age of Hatred (118 page)

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Although this book is based largely on secondary sources, I was determined to pursue certain issues into the primary sources. In doing so, I and my researchers were fortunate to have assistance from numerous public and private archives. Documents from the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle are quoted with the gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen. Documents from the Rothschild Archive are quoted with the permission of the Trustees of the Archive. I am also grateful to the staff at the following archives: the Archivio Segreto Vaticano; the Auswärtiges Amt in Berlin; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University; the Bibliotheèque de l’Alliance Israeélite Universelle in Paris; the Imperial War Museum, London; the Landeshaupt-archiv, Koblenz; the Library of Congress, Washington DC; the Memorial Research Centre, Moscow; the National Archives, Washington DC; the National Archives, Kew; the National Archives at College Park, Maryland; the National Security Archive at the George Washington University, Washington DC; the Research and Documentation Centre, Sarajevo; the Rothschild Archive, London; the Russian State Archives, Moscow; the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, and the United States Holocaust Museum Library and Archives, Washington DC.

This book has been at least ten years in the making and many hands have contributed to the work. At least a dozen students have helped with the research during vacations, namely Sam Choe, Lizzy Emerson, Tom Fleuriot, Bernhard Fulda, Ian Klaus, Naomi Ling, Charles Smith, Andrew Vereker, Kathryn Ward and Alex Watson. Ameet Gill started off on this part-time basis and then went on to become a full-time researcher at Blakeway Productions, while Jason Rockett became my research assistant when I moved to Harvard. They have done their jobs superbly. But to all my researchers I am indebted; they not only helped to dig, but also to build.

Not all the relevant documents and texts were in languages I could read. I would therefore like to thank the following translators for their work: Brian Patrick Quinn (Italian); Himmet Taskomur (Turkish); Kyoko Sato (Japanese); Jaeyoon Song (Korean); Juan Piantino and Laura Ferreira Provenzano (Spanish).

Many scholars generously responded to my or my researchers’ requests for assistance. In particular, I would like to thank Anatoly Belik, senior researcher at the Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg; Michael Burleigh, who generously read draft scripts and offered advice from the very earliest stages of the project; Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago; Bruce A. Elleman at the Naval War College, Newport, RI; Henry Hardy of Wolfson College, Oxford; Jean-Claude Kuperminc of the Bibliothèque de l’Alliance Israeélite Universelle, Paris; Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Patricia Polansky of the University of Hawaii; David Raichlen in the Harvard Department of Anthropology; Bradley Schaffner of the Slavic Division of
the Widener Library at Harvard; and Mirsad Tokača and Lara J. Nettelfield at the Research and Documentation Centre, Sarajevo.

This is, I am happy to say, a Penguin book on both sides of the Atlantic. Teams of talented people in both London and New York have worked under extremely pressing deadlines to turn my raw manuscript into a finished book. In London first mention must go to Simon Winder, my editor. He and his opposite number in New York, Scott Moyers, strove with might and main to improve the text; I could not have wished for better editorial advice. Michael Page did a superb job as copy-editor. Thanks are also due (in London) to Samantha Borland, Sarah Christie, Richard Duguid, Rosie Glaisher, Helen Fraser and Stefan McGrath. In New York Ann Godoff played an invaluable role in honing the book’s shape and direction.

Like my last two books,
The War of the World
was written concurrently with the making of a television series. One could not have existed independently of the other. It would be impossible here to thank all those responsible for the six-part series made by Blakeway Productions for Channel 4 – that is what the credits at the end of each film are for – but it would be wrong not to acknowledge those members of the television team who in one way or another contributed to the book as well as the series: Janice Hadlow, who was present at the creation, and her successor at Channel 4, Hamish Mykura; Denys Blakeway, the executive producer; Melanie Fall, the series producer; Adrian Pennink and Simon Chu, the directors; Dewald Aukema, the director of photography; Joanna Potts, the assistant producer; and Rosalind Bentley, the archive researcher. I would also like to express my gratitude to Guy Crossman, Joby Gee, Susie Gordon and, last but not least, Kate Macky. Among the many people who helped us film the series, a number of ‘fixers’ went out of their way to help me with my research for the book. My thanks go to Faris Dobracha, Carlos Duarte, Nikoleta Milasevic, Maria Razumovskaya and Kulikar Sotho, as well as to Marina Erastova, Agnieszka Kik, Tatsiana Melnichuk, Funda Odemis, Levent Oztekin, Liudmila Shas-tak, Christian Storms and George Zhou.

I am extremely fortunate to have in Andrew Wylie the best literary agent in the world and in Sue Ayton his counterpart in the realm of British television. My thanks also go to Katherine Marino, Amelia Lester and all the other staff in the London and New York offices of the Wylie Agency.

A number of historians generously read chapters in draft. I would like to thank Robert Blobaum, John Coatsworth, David Dilks, Orlando Figes, Akira Iriye, Dominic Lieven, Charles Maier, Erez Manela, Ernest May, Mark Mazower, Greg Mitrovich, Emer O’Dwyer, Steven Pinker and Jacques Rupnik. Needless to say, all errors of fact and interpretation that remain are my fault alone.

Because the book has been the work of a wandering scholar, I have more than the usual number of debts of gratitude to academic institutions. Its origins lay in Jesus College, Oxford, and I must therefore thank my former colleagues there, especially the then Principal, Sir Peter North, and the senior history tutor, Felicity Heal, as well as those present and former Fellows – notably David Acheson, Colin Clarke, John Gray, Nicholas Jacobs and David Womersley – who helped me clarify my thoughts on everything from ethnicity to empire. The Estates Bursar, Peter Mirfield, and Home Bursar, Peter Beer, know the ways in which the College helped me financially as well as intellectually and I am grateful to them too. Vital secretarial support came from Vivien Bowyer and her successor Sonia Thuery. A special debt of gratitude is also due to the Master and Fellows of Oriel College who, thanks to Jeremy Catto, generously provided me with shelter from the Oxford elements after I resigned my tutorship at Jesus.

At New York University I was fortunate to spend two very productive years sharing ideas with (among others) David Backus, Adam Brandenburger, Bill Easterly, Tony
Judt, Tom Sargent, Bill Silber, George Smith, Richard Sylla, Bernard Yeung and Larry White. I also remain deeply in the debt of John and Diana Herzog, as well as John Sexton and William Berkeley, who persuaded me to try my hand at teaching history to business-school students.

Each year my one-month retreat to the Hoover Institution at Stanford gives me a chance to do nothing but read, think and write. Without it I should never have got the manuscript finished. I therefore thank John Raisian, the Director, and his excellent staff, particularly Jeff Bliss, William Bonnett, Noel Kolak, Celeste Szeto, Deborah Ventura and Dan Wilhelmi. Hoover Fellows who have wittingly or unwittingly helped me include Martin Anderson, Robert Barro, Robert Conquest, Larry Diamond, Gerald Dorfman, Timothy Garton Ash, Stephen Haber, Kenneth Jowitt, Norman Naimark, Alvin Rabushka, Peter Robinson, Richard Sousa and Barry Weingast.

It has been at Harvard, however, that the book has finally been born and it is to Harvard that I owe the greatest debt. I am especially grateful to Larry Summers, Bill Kirby and Laura Fisher who took the lead in persuading me to make the move to Cambridge. The Harvard History Department is a wonderful scholarly community to be a part of; my thanks to all its members for their welcome and support, particularly past Chair David Blackbourn and present Chair Andrew Gordon. New colleagues who have contributed to the completion of this book with suggestions and advice are too numerous to list. The Department is very well served by its administrative staff; I am grateful in particular to Janet Hatch, as well as to Cory Paulsen and Wes Chin, all of whom have been forgiving of my many sins of bureaucratic omission and commission. The Center for European Studies is proving to be an ideal home; I cannot praise too highly Peter Hall, its Director, and his excellent staff, especially Executive Director Patricia Craig, as well as Filomena Cabral, George Cumming, Anna Popiel, Sandy Seletsky and Sarah Shoemaker. On the other side of the River Charles I have found another hugely stimulating milieu at Harvard Business School. Former Dean Kim Clark and Acting Dean Jay Light were bold enough to give the idea of a joint appointment a chance, for which I thank them. I am grateful to all the members of the ‘Business and Government in the International Economy’ unit for initiating me into the case method, in particular Rawi Abdelal, Regina Abrami, Laura Alfaro, Jeff Fear, Lakshmi Iyer, Noel Maurer, David Moss, Aldo Musacchio, Forest Reinhardt, Debora Spar, Gunnar Trumbull, Richard Vietor and Louis Wells. Finally, I thank all my students in Section H, who went up the learning curve with me – at times ahead of me – and, of course, the Tisch family for their generosity in endowing my chair.

What makes Harvard addictive (I realize as I write this) is that the stimulus comes from all sides. Quite apart from the institutions to which I am formally affiliated, there are numerous other settings in which I have been able to refine and improve the arguments advanced here: Graham Allison’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Martin Feldstein’s Seminar in Economics and Security; Harvey Mansfield’s Seminar in Politics; Stephen Rosen’s Seminar in International Security at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies; Jorge Domínguez’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; Jeffrey Williamson’s Workshop in Economic History – not forgetting the dining hall at Lowell House and, last but by no means least, Marty Peretz’s incomparable Cambridge salon.

Yet the transatlantic existence has its penalties, besides jetlag. To my wife Susan and our children, Felix, Freya and Lachlan, this book has been a disagreeable rival, dragging me away to distant shores, or merely confining me in my study during too many weekends and holidays. I beg their forgiveness. In dedicating
The War of the World
to them, I hope I do a little to preserve
The Peace of the Home
.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 2006

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