Chesterton on War and Peace
Subtitle: Battling the Ideas and Movements that led to Nazism and World War II
By: G. K. Chesterton ; Michael W. Perry, editor.
Contributors: Perry, Michael W.; Aquinas, Thomas; Churchill, Winston; Angell, Norman; Shaw, Bernard; Russell, Bertrand; Gandhi, Mahatma; Wells, H. G.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Inkling Books
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Seattle, WA
Language: eng
Format: Hardback; Paperback
Number of pages: 447
ISBN-13: 9781587420610; 9781587420627
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918 -- Causes; National socialism; Europe -- Politics and government -- 20th century
First sentence: My initial plan for this book was to include between two covers virtually everything Chesterton wrote about war before 1923. That soon proved impractical, if not impossible. Chesterton was a prolific writer and during the First World War he focused his enormous energy on writing about the fighting from almost every angle. A draft of this book was approaching a thousand pages, without many clarifying notes, when good sense dictated I narrow the focus.

Once that decision was made, the next step was obvious. I would pick the best of the best. This book is built around a careful selection from the articles Chesterton wrote for “Our Note-Book,” his weekly column in the Illustrated London News. Before radio and television, the Illustrated London News was highly influential, reaching a large audience throughout Britain, across Europe, and in the United States. The articles you see here were chosen for their historical importance and their lasting relevance to today’s debates about war and peace.
Description: Shortly after G. K. Chesterton's death, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a American Jewish leader, had this to say about G. K. Chesterton:

"Indeed, I was a warm admirer of Gilbert Chesterton.... When Hitlerism came, he was one of the first to speak out with all the directness and frankness of a great and unabashed spirit. Blessings to his memory."

This book is a collection of articles that Chesterton wrote before, during, and just after World War I, in which warned of the danger that Germany posed to the peace of Europe. His criticism of the German worldview at that time led directly to his criticism of "Hitlerism" that Rabbi Wise would later praise.

In 1932, Chesterton would warn that Germany would soon turn to a dictatorship and, if not hindered by the leaders of Britain and France, soon lead Europe into a war that would begin over a border dispute between Germany and Poland. Dictatorship came in 1932 and war came in 1939, precisely as Chesterton had warned. Chesterton should be placed alongside Churchill as one of the few who warned of the threat Germany posed to peace.
Notes: Includes 111 articles that Chesterton wrote for the Illustrated London News between 1905 and 1922, along with extensive introductions and notes to make the background of the articles clear. Also includes bibliographical references, an index and articles on preventing war by some of Chesterton's contemporaries.
Table of contents: label: Foreword; label: 1.
title: BATTLING ILLUSIONS, 1905-1913; title: A Time of Illusion--Editor; title: A Warning Sign, October 7, 1905; title: Scientific Barbarism, August 4, 1906; title: Militarism and Boys, October 6, 1906; title: Hating Nations Intelligently, October 20, 1906; title: Koepenick’s Comic Captain, October 27, 1906; title: Chesterton’s New Masthead, January 5, 1907; title: International or Cosmopolitan, June 22, 1907; title: Weakest Link, July 20, 1907; title: Giving Up War, April 25, 1908; title: The Importance of Why, August 15, 1908; title: Humanitarian Hate, September 19, 1908; title: A War of Men Not Ships, March 27, 1909; title: Journalistic Fear Mongering, January 8, 1910; title: Race and Politics, April 30, 1910; title: Cultivating His Garden, September 17, 1910; title: Wars Out of Love, December 31, 1910; title: More Sacred than Nations, January 14, 1911; title: Excuses with Distant Parallels, October 21, 1911; title: Doubting Informants, November 18, 1911; title: Observing the Military, September 14, 1912; title: Liberalism’s Lost Courage, June 21, 1913; title: Militarism and Children, July 26, 1913; title: Prussian Kings, December 13, 1913; label: 2.
title: BATTLING RACISM, 1914; title: Racial Nonsense—Editor; title: Prussian Pride, August 22, 1914; title: Harnack’s Racial Nonsense, September 5, 1914; title: Casting Out Devils, September 12, 1914; title: Responsibility for War, September 26, 1914; title: Blaming Serbia, October 10, 1914; title: Pacifism’s Dead Words, October 17, 1914; title: War, Noble but Unnatural, November 21, 1914; label: 3.
title: BATTLING PACIFISM, 1915; title: Chesterton’s Pen—Editor; title: Seizing the Pen, May 22, 1915; title: Free and Separate, May 29, 1915; title: Spoiled by Words, June 5, 1915; title: Conscription Debated, June 12, 1915; title: Casting Down Idols, June 19, 1915; title: Pacifism and Treason, July 3, 1915; title: Honour and Modesty in War, July 24, 1915; title: A World of Pigmies, August 7, 1915; title: Pacifist Incompetence, August 14, 1915; title: Edith Cavell, October 30, 1915; title: Henry Ford’s Pacifism, December 11, 1915; label: 4.
title: BATTLING MILITARISM, 1916; title: Ernst Haeckel—Editor; title: Crimes Unpunished, January 1, 1916; title: Inside the German Mind, January 15, 1916; title: Why War?, January 29, 1916; title: Pride as Sin, February 26, 1916; title: Zeppelins and the Press, March 18, 1916; title: War Between Races, April 8, 1916; title: Polish Patriotism, May 20, 1916; title: Germany’s Inhumane Hope, June 24, 1916; title: Germany as God, August 19, 1916; title: Cowardice and Revenge, September 2, 1916; title: Averting the Peril, September 16, 1916; title: Defective National Feeling, October 7, 1916; title: Lawlessness as Law, October 28, 1916; title: Chivalry in War, November 11, 1916; title: War’s Big Picture, December 16, 1916; label: 5.
title: BATTLING TEUTONISM, 1917; title: Henry Cabot Lodge—Editor; title: Milk and Water Pacifism, January 27, 1917; title: Peace Without Victory, February 3, 1917; title: America Enters the War, April 14, 1917; title: Great German Heresy, April 21, 1917; title: Pacifist Nightmares, June 2, 1917; title: Germans Without Flaws, July 14, 1917; title: War Weariness, August 25, 1917; title: Lordly Peace-Mongers, September 1, 1917; title: Peace that Will End Peace, September 8, 1917; title: Wars More Horrible, September 29, 1917; title: Praise with Faint Damns, October 13, 1917; title: Playing the Race Card, October 20, 1917; title: Germany’s Horrible Holiday, October 27, 1917; title: Discrediting Despotism, November 10, 1917; title: Whitewashing Barbarians, December 15, 1917; label: 6.
title: BATTLING DEFEATISM, 1918; title: Courage in Decline—Editor; title: A Peace Too Soon, January 12, 1918; title: Pacifist Illogic, January 19, 1918; title: Pacifist Weakness, January 26, 1918; title: Pacifist Defeat, April 6, 1918; title: Pacifist Prigs, May 11, 1918; title: Two Different Leagues, July 13, 1918; title: Bloodless Pacifism, August 3, 1918; title: A League to Defend Nations, August 10, 1918; title: America Free to Strike, September 7, 1918; title: Refreshed by Invasion, September 21, 1918; title: Cursing Germany, September 28, 1918; title: Nations as Ideals, October 5, 1918; title: Germany’s Illusion, November 2, 1918; title: Looking Back, November 23, 1918; title: Victory Will Efface All, December 7, 1918; title: Denying Racial Equality, December 21, 1918; title: Christmas versus Yule, December 28, 1918; label: 7.
title: BATTLING INTERNATIONALISM, 1919-1922; title: Grand Schemes—Editor; title: Nations Are Unique, January 4, 1919; title: Polish Nationalism, January 11, 1919; title: Poland and Peace-mongers, January 18, 1919; title: Protecting Small Nations, February 15, 1919; title: Polish Precipice, April 5, 1919; title: Christianity and War, April 12, 1919; title: Equity for Victims, May 10, 1919; title: Unrepentant Germany, May 24, 1919; title: Criminal Germany, May 31, 1919; title: Barbaric Germany,  June 14, 1919; title: Civilization Leads, June 21, 1919; title: False Teutonic History, June 28, 1919; title: Hindenberg and German Guilt, July 19, 1919; title: Cannibal Theory, July 26, 1919; title: Ludendorff’s Francs-tireurs, September 13, 1919; title: Civilisation as a Choice, July 10, 1920; title: War to End All Pacifisms, July 31, 1920; title: H. G. Wells and Nationalism, June 4, 1921; title: Armament Debates, November 26, 1921; title: Agreeing to War, December 3, 1921; title: A Boy’s Bow, January 7, 1922; title: Weary of War, May 6, 1922; title: Imperialistic Internationalism, June 17, 1922; title: King Arthur’s Legacy, December 16, 1922; label: APPENDICES; title: Differing Views—Editor; title: A. Is It Always a Sin to Go to War?—Thomas Aquinas, 1265–1274; title: B. The Balkan Situation—Winston Churchill, 1912; title: C. The Great Illusion—Norman Angell, 1913; title: D. Common Sense about the War—Bernard Shaw, 1914; title: E. The Ethics of War—Bertrand Russell, 1915; title: F. Soul-Force and Tapasya—Mahatma Gandhi, 1917; title: G. In the Fourth Year—H. G. Wells, 1918; label: INDEX