REVIEW OF BOOKS
A Short History of War and Peace. By G. H. Perris, Author of “Russia in Revolution,” “The Life and Teaching of Tolstoy,” etc. Membre de l’Institute International de Paix. 50 cents net. Home University Library. New York, Henry Holt & Company; London, Williams and Norgate.
Mr. Perris, who like all other authors of the Home University Library series is a recognized authority of his subject. He gives a brilliant summary, condensing into a nutshell the steps by which the nations have passed from a state of constant war to a state of comparative peace, and shows that soldiers of genius no longer appear because the environment is unfavorable and the demand has failed, Othello’s occupation’s gone. The mechanism of war has killed the art of war; and this mechanism is doomed itself because, while it can reap no recompense, its cost in use is likely to bring its owners to the pit of bankruptcy, famine and revolution.
In summing up Mr. Perris says: “So far from being based upon unchangeable passions, the nature of man as “a social animal” is based upon material and moral interests which have undergone deep changes, indeed, but in a certain general order and direction. We can trace these changes both in the structure and the function of successive societies established in the course of the swarming process by which the earth has been filled.” He shows that the ideas of arbitration have been gaining ground slowly but surely.
Belgium. By C. K. Ensor, sometime scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, England. With maps, 50 cents net. Series of the Home University Library, number 95, pp 256. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1915.
The events of August, 1914, and their sequel have shown Belgium to many in a new light. They have seen a nation where they had supposed that there was only geographical expression. They have seen martial courage where they had forgotten that it had been famous for centuries. They have been surprised to find in this little land so much civic patriotism.
Belgium is the most accessible country on the Continent to the English: and it has been visited by numberless Americans since Longfellow’s day, but it is proverbially easy to overlook what lies under one’s nose. Those of us who have long been aware that Belgium is something more than a collection of old buildings and Old Masters, or a stopping place on the journey to Germany or Switzerland, can but welcome the new interest which is taken in her by the wider public on both sides of the Atlantic, for she is worthy of it. The episode which the world pities is not an historical accident, ennobling by chance the record of an ignoble people. If under the ordeal they have become great, it was because they had greatness in them.
The author in speaking of the architecture of Belgium has his doubts as to how much of it will escape the devastation of the European War. “But in any case the first sequel of peace in Belgium must be rebuilding. It will be fortunate then,” the author says, “that in consequence of the building fever of recent years the country is equipped beyond the ordinary needs of its size with architects, builders, trained workmen, and experience, which may enable its ruined towns to rise purified and beautified from their ashes.” This statement may be true if the architects, builders, trained workmen and other workers have not been killed in battle. The devastation of Belgium, alone is argument enough for the rest of the world to quit the foolishness of war.
An Open Letter to the Nation with Regard to a Peace Plan. By James Howard Kehler, New York: Mitchell Kennerley. 1915, pp 25.
The letter in this neat little volume is addressed to The President, The Ministers of Government and The Congress of the United States: To the Members of the Peace Societies: To the Press and to the People: