Deconstruction of deconstruction: about the book "The myth of 1648 ..." by B. Teschke
In recent decades, there has been a process of reconsideration and revision of previous attitudes, doctrines and paradigms in the humanities. This phenomenon is an integral part of the global process of reassessment of the experience accumulated by the society of the modern era, which affected almost all spheres of life and activity of society, the state, and individuals or groups. Naturally, the modern era also affected international relations since the events of the late XX - early XXI centuries contributed to this to a large extent. The revision of the established norms and rules, written and unwritten, relations between states raised the question of their genesis. As a result, another question arose – how true is the assertion that the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which put an end to the Thirty Years’ War, is the starting point from which the New Age begins in international relations. This opinion, which has been established both in literature and in public opinion since the second half of the last century, at the end of it began to be subjected to reasonable criticism. This article is a review of the research by B. Teschke, published in 2019 (2nd edition) by the Higher School of Economics, "The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics and the Creation of Modern International Relations." Criticizing the "Westphalian myth", the author of "The Myth of 1648 ..." examines it in a broad historical and temporal context. After analyzing the main aspects associated with the formation of the system of international relations in the modern era, B. Teschke comes to the conclusion that it was not the Peace of Westphalia that became the fundamental principle on which the building of modern international relations later arose. Supporting the conclusions of the researcher regarding the fallacy of the "Westphalian myth" and emphasizing the extraordinary of his book, the author of the review at the same time draws attention to a number of controversial places in it.
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Sources
Teshke, B. (2019), Mif o 1648 gode: klass, geopolitika i sozdanie sovremennyh mezhdunarodnyh otnoshenij [The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations], Translated by D. Kralechkina, Publishing House of the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia (in Russ.).
Teschke, B. (2003), The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations, Verso, London, New York.
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