Європейські історичні студії (Feb 2020)
The Ideas of European Integration in the Journalistic Activities of W. T. Stead (Based upon His Work “The United States of Europe on the Eve of the Parliament of Peace”)
Abstract
The article analyzes the ideas of European political integration as the famous British journalist William Thomas Stead stated in his work “The United States of Europe on the eve of the Parliament of Peace” (1899). It examines the so-called “international crusade of peace”, the leading provisions of the Euro-integration concept activities of W. T. Stead. The author emphasizes the progressiveness and originality of the journalist’s approaches, and emphasizes his innovative proposals and compares the positions of W. T. Stead with the standards of behavior of a Victorian man, examines his moral and ethical attitudes towards the war, the problems of the growth of arms of the European countries of the late 19th century, and the aggressive foreign policy. As W. T. Stead wrote in his “The United States of Europe on the eve of the Parliament of Peace”, the European integration means departure from militarism and coming to disarmament, that is the absence of armed conflicts at all. The pacifist, peaceful principles of W. T. Stead are emphasized against the background of the broader imperial policy of the late Victorian Britain, and the issues of journalist perceptions of militarism, imperialism, the problems of arms and international relations, and the foreign policy of his native country are highlighted. W. T. Stead’s high expectations about the eve of the next step in the progress of human society far away from the cruelties of war were emphasized. In the article was stated that W. T. Stead thought it would be better for an imperialist Britain to limit itself within the patriotic and reasonable political line at the same time. The issues of peace and war in Britain were shown, and the increased lethality of weapons and the anomalous chaos of warfare of the end of the 19th century. The author comes to a conclusion of the sincerity, objectivity, impartiality, progressiveness of the views of W. T. Stead, who considered the process of European integration as the one of the stages of building a better human society in the world.
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