If this, the fourth American edition, is bulkier than its predecessors, it is chiefly because the events of the last two years throw an interesting light upon the bearing of the book’s main thesis on ...

The present volume is the outcome of a large pamphlet published in Europe at the end of last year entitled Europe’s Optical Illusion. The interest that the pamphlet created and the character of the di...

What are the fundamental motives that explain the present rivalry of armaments in Europe, notably the Anglo-German? Each nation pleads the need for defence; but this implies that someone is likely to ...

It is generally admitted that the present rivalry in armaments in Europe⁠—notably such as that now in progress between England and Germany⁠—cannot go on in its present form indefinitely. The net resul...

It is generally admitted that the present rivalry in armaments in Europe⁠—notably such as that now in progress between England and Germany⁠—cannot go on in its present form indefinitely. The net resul...

Are the axioms set out in the last chapter unchallengeable? Is it true that the wealth, prosperity and well-being of a nation depend upon its military power, or have necessarily anything whatever to d...

I think it will be admitted that there is not much chance of misunderstanding the general idea embodied in the passage quoted at the end of the last chapter. Mr. Harrison is especially definite. At th...

During the Victorian Jubilee procession an English beggar was heard to say: I own Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Burma, and the Islands of the Far Pacific; and I am starving for want of a crus...

Just as Mr. Harrison has declared that a “successful invasion would mean to the English the total eclipse of their commerce and trade, and with that trade the means of feeding forty millions in their ...

In politics it is unfortunately true that ten dollars which can be seen bulk more largely in the public mind than a million which happen to be out of sight but are none the less real. Thus, however cl...

The foregoing chapters dispose of the first six of the seven propositions outlined in Chapter III. There remains the seventh, dealing with the notion that in some way England’s security and prosperity...

What is the practical outcome of the situation which the facts detailed in the last chapter make plain? Must nations like Germany conclude that, because there can be no duplication of the fight for em...

Perhaps the commonest plea urged in objection to the case presented in the first part of this book is that the real motives of nations in going to war are not economic at all; that their conflicts ari...

Perhaps the commonest plea urged in objection to the case presented in the first part of this book is that the real motives of nations in going to war are not economic at all; that their conflicts ari...

Those who have followed at all closely the peace advocacy of the last few years will have observed a curious shifting of ground on the part of its opponents. Until quite recently, most peace advocacy ...

All of us who have had occasion to discuss this subject are familiar with the catchphrases with which the whole matter is so often dismissed. “You cannot change human nature,” “What man always has bee...

The militarist authorities I have quoted in the preceding chapter admit, therefore, and admit very largely, man’s drift, in a sentimental sense, away from war. But that drift, they declare, is degener...

Despite the general tendency indicated by the facts dealt with in the preceding chapter, it will be urged (with perfect justice) that, though the methods of Anglo-Saxondom as compared with those of th...

Despite the common idea to the contrary, we dearly love an abstraction⁠—especially, apparently, an abstraction which is based on half the facts. Whatever the foregoing chapters may have proved, they h...

The general proposition embodied in this book⁠—that the world has passed out of that stage of development in which it is possible for one civilized group to advance its well-being by the military domi...

The general proposition embodied in this book⁠—that the world has passed out of that stage of development in which it is possible for one civilized group to advance its well-being by the military domi...

“Not the facts, but men’s opinions about the facts, are what matter,” one thinker has remarked. And this is because men’s conduct is determined, not necessarily by the right conclusion from facts, but...

We have seen, therefore⁠— That the need for defence arises from the existence of a motive for attack. That that motive is, consequently, part of the problem of defence. That, since as between the adva...

Much of the pessimism as to the possibility of any progress in this matter is based on the failure of such efforts as Hague Conferences. Never has the contest of armament been so keen as when Europe b...

At the outbreak of the Balkan War The Great Illusion was subjected to much criticism, on the ground that the war tended to disprove its theses. The following quotations, one from Mr. Churchill, the Fi...

The True Way of Life (Headley Brothers, London), p. 29. I am aware that many modern pacifists, even of the English school, to which these remarks mainly apply, are more objective in their advocacy tha...