La Grande Illusion
Angell is most widely remembered for his 1909 pamphlet, "Europe's Optical Illusion," which was published the following year (and many years thereafter) as the book, "The Great Illusion". (The anti-war film "La Grande Illusion" took its title from his pamphlet.) The thesis of the book was that the integration of the economies of European countries had grown to such a degree that war between them would be entirely futile, making militarism obsolete. This quotation from the "Synopsis" to the popular 1913 edition summarizes his basic argument.