The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National AdvantageG.P. Putnam's sons, 1913 - 371 pages |
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advantage aggression Alsace-Lorraine American Anglo-Saxon Argentina armaments army Balkan become Belgium better Britain British Empire CHAPTER citizens civilized co-operation Cobdenite Colonies commercial conception condition conflict conquered conqueror conquest Daily Mail defence depends Dreadnoughts England English Europe European fact factors fight foreign France Frederic Harrison French G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS German German Empire Germany's Government Homer Lea human nature ideal ideas illusion impossible indemnity industrial interdependence interest involved kill less live London markets matter means ment militarist military power millions modern moral motive nations navy never Norman Angell opinion organization pacifist patriotism peace physical force political population possessions possible problem progress prosperity psychological pugnacity question race religious result rival rôle Russian social soldier South Africa Spain Spenser Wilkinson struggle survival Switzerland tendency territory things tion to-day trade true truth Turk warlike wealth whole
Popular passages
Page 165 - Militarism is the great preserver of our ideals of hardihood, and human life without hardihood would be contemptible. . . , This natural feeling forms, I think, the innermost soul of army writings. Without any exception known to me, militarist authors take a highly mystical view of their subject, and regard war as a biological or sociological necessity.
Page 164 - which above everything else bring national renown. We do not admire a man of timid peace. By war alone can we acquire those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. In this world the nation that is trained to a career of unwarlike and isolated ease is bound to go down in the
Page 68 - islands," so I have seen it stated in a leading English paper that "if Germany were extinguished to-morrow, the day after to-morrow there is not an Englishman in the world who would not be the richer. Nations have fought for years over a city or right of succession. Must they not fight for
Page 160 - of the State, and the only function in which peoples can employ all their powers at once and convergently. No victory is possible save as the resultant of a totality of virtues; no defeat for which some vice or weakness is not responsible. Fidelity, cohesiveness, tenacity, heroism, conscience, education, inventiveness, economy, wealth, physical health and vigor—there
Page 223 - notably Mr. Roosevelt's dictum: "In this world the nation that is trained to a career of unwarlike and isolated ease is bound to go down in the end before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities." This view is even emphasized in the speech which Mr. Roosevelt recently delivered at the University of Berlin (see
Page 294 - •Professor William James says: "Greek history is a panorama of war for war's sake ... of the utter ruin of a civilization which in intellectual respects was perhaps the highest the earth has ever seen. The wars were purely piratical. Pride, gold, women, slaves, excitement were their only
Page 165 - army writings. Without any exception known to me, militarist authors take a highly mystical view of their subject, and regard war as a biological or sociological necessity. . . . Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow and thousands of years of peace won't breed it out of
Page 207 - children who have begun to live in their mother's womb and there died, or who, having been just born, have passed away from the world without the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, must be punished by the eternal torture of undying fire." To make the doctrine clearer, he illustrates it by the case of a mother who
Page 160 - struggle of nations for survival. This point of view is expressed by SR Steinmetz in his "Philosophic des Krieges." War, according to this author, is an ordeal instituted by God, who weighs the nations in its balance. It is the essential
Page 162 - Storey: A few idealists may have visions that with advancing civilization war and its dread horrors will cease. Civilization has not changed human nature. The nature of man makes war inevitable. Armed strife will not disappear from the earth until human nature changes.