Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: For The Peace of the World
Chapter 1: How The Nineteenth Century Shaped the Hague Conferences
Chapter 2: The Tsar, The Rescript and The World
Chapter 3: A Coram Publies: Planning the First Hague Conference, 1899
Chapter 4: It Is Not Enough! The First Hague Conference, 1899
Chapter 5: Civilization at War, 1899 - 1906
Chapter 6: A Holy Duty: Activists for The Hague
Chapter 7: When the World Showed Up. The Second Hague Conference, 1907
Chapter 8: City of Peace: The Hague, 1907-1915
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

Based on archival research in multiple languages, this book makes a compelling argument for the importance of the Hague in the global diplomacy of the early 20th century.

About the Author

Maartje Abbenhuis is Associate Professor in Modern European History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has published widely on the history of neutrality and internationalism, including The Art of Staying Neutral: The Netherlands in the First World War (2006) and An Age of Neutrals: Great Power Politics 1815–1914 (2014).

Reviews

But how does one take measure of anything as sweeping and opaque as global public opinion from over a century ago? Abbenhuis has a modern response: digital newspaper databases .. Abbenhuis’s ambitious book demonstrates the merits of this methodology.
*Peace & Change*

Important for historians of international politics ... [and] also highly relevant for historians of international law ... Historians of the Low Countries, finally, will find in the book a fascinating account.
*BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review*

A valuable contribution to debates about internationalism and the role of ‘public opinion’ in the conduct of diplomacy in the early twentieth century. Written in an engaging and accessible style, it will benefit students and established scholars alike.
*The Journal of Strategic Studies*

This book rethinks the place of the Hague conferences in modern international history. The public enthusiasm for peace endowed the work of the conferences with meaning and power, with crucial political implications throughout an often violent twentieth century. In a work, leavened with wit and personality, Abbenhuis shows how the conferences brought about real political change.
*William Mulligan, Senior Lecturer in History, University College Dublin, Ireland*

Here is a compelling account of the forging of the framework of today’s global laws of war and peace. Abbenhuis writes transnational history with a light touch and a shrewd eye for a moment when the Hague became what it is today -- a synonym for the search for peace and justice. Essential reading for students of twentieth-century history.
*Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University, USA*

In this definitive and comprehensive study of The Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 and their legacies, Abbenhuis situates their accomplishments and limitations in the global “landscape of voices” that influenced them. Peace advocates, countless newspapers and books, politicians, women’s organizations, and intellectuals helped normalize a discourse of “peace through law” that has had a lasting effect on the development of international law and the regulation of state-sponsored conflict around the world.
*Robert A. Nye, Professor Emeritus of History, Oregon State University, USA*

A stimulating, informative and well-written book.
*Historische Zeitschrift (Bloomsbury Translation)*

[An] engrossing volume ... All historians of international politics will benefit from [Abbenhuis'] work.
*Diplomatica*