Book excerpt: This innovative new textbook seeks to provide undergraduate students of international relations with valuable and relevant historical context, bridging the gap and offering a genuinely interdisciplinary approach. Each chapter integrates both historical analysis and literature and applies this to an international relations context in an accessible fashion, allowing students to understand the historical context in which these core issues have developed. The book is organised thematically around the key issues in international relations such as war, peace, sovereignty, identity, empire and international organisations. Each chapter provides an overview of the main historical context, theories and literature in each area and applies this to the study of international relations. Providing a fresh approach, this work will be essential reading for all students of international relations and international relations theory.