Jacket flap blurb

The arrival, on 1 July 1911, of a German gunboat, the Panther, in the Moroccan harbour of Agadir set the world in turmoil and led Europe to the brink of war. Seventy years later, in our own age of gunboat diplomacy, the dispatch of the United States' Seventh Fleet to the Persian Gulf and the perimeter of strife-torn Iran in 1979 made a new global conflict seem not unthinkable. In this remarkable new book, Professor Geoffrey Barraclough uses the perspective of a lifetime's distinguished historical study to examine precedents for the present world crisis and asks : as the Agadir Crisis led to war in 1914, will current rivalries propel us towards a Third World War ?

From Agadir to Armageddon is not an alarmist or contrived attempt to draw dramatic lessons from history. It is a careful, revealing and documented observation of a key episode in twentieth- century diplomacy, and a comparison of societies in conflict. Every reader, Professor Barraclough argues, will draw his own conclusions. But the similarities and analogies are too close for comfort. It is timely to rescue the Agadir crisis from the history books and consider what parallels it has with contemporary world politics.

Quite apart from a supremely elegant essay in political analysis, this book is a highly important contribution to the ever active debate over the origins of the First World War. Written with energy and clarity, Professor Barraclough's new book is written for historians, political scientists, politicians and everyone with an interest in the preservation of peace.

Geoffrey Barraclough is among the best- known international historians of his generation. Educated at Oxford and Munich, he has been Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, Director of Studies at St. John's College, Cambridge, Professor of Mediaeval History at the University of Liverpool, Research Professor at the
University of London, Professor of History at the University of California, Springer Professor of History at Brandeis University and Chichele Professor of Modern History and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Among his many books are The Origins of Modern Germany, The Medieval Papacy and An Introduction to Contemporary History.

Jacket design by Behram Kapadia
ILLUSTRATIONS The gunboat Panther, from the National Maritime Museum, London and the guided missile destroyer U S S John S. McCain, from the Naval Photographic Center, Washington.