The Merchants of Death

by H.C. Engelbrecht, F.C. Hanighen, Harry Elmer Barnes (Foreword)

Here is the archetype of all post–World War I revisionism of a particular the hunt for the people who made the big bucks off the killing machine. The Merchants of Death was, in many ways, the manifesto of a generation of people who swore there would not be and could not be another such war.But here is the it was coauthored by the founder of Human Events, the conservative weekly. So this is no left-wing screed against profiteering. It is a careful and subtle, but still passionate, attack on those who would use government to profit themselves at the expense of other people's lives and property.Here is a sample of the ideological "The arms industry did not create the war system. On the contrary, the war system created the arms industry.… All constitutions in the world vest the war-making power in the government or in the representatives of the people. The root of the trouble, therefore, goes far deeper than the arms industry. It lies in the prevailing temper of peoples toward nationalism, militarism, and war, in the civilization which forms this temper and prevents any drastic and radical change. Only when this underlying basis of the war system is altered, will war and its concomitant, the arms industry, pass out of existence."This book is a wonderful example of what Rothbard called the "Old Right" in its best form. The book not only makes the case against the war machine; it provides a scintillating history of war profiteering, one authoritative enough for citation and academic study. One can see how this book had such a powerful effect.Why rerelease this book now? The war profiteers are making money as never before. They are benefiting from conflict as never before. Everything in this book has not only come to pass but as been made worse by a million times. So this treatise is more necessary than ever.This is the real heritage of the American Right.To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

Genres: History, Politics, War, Economics, Business, Military History, Education

235 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1934

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book. It's a bit of a dry read and a bit more "academic" than some will probably like, with the author going to great lengths trying to appear as unbiased and unemotional as possible. Ultimately, though, this just gives even more weight to the information in the book as it's essentially just a documentation of sourced facts with dates and names attached. It allows the reader to basically take the information and do with it what they will.

The book offers a peek behind the curtain of international war and those who profit off of it. It shows how, even 100 years ago, there were extremely rich and powerful men provoking war in every way possible, and then selling weapons and ammunition to both sides of the conflict they helped create. A German company, for example, would sell weapons to Germany while also secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) selling weapons to the enemies of Germany at the same time. And while that's happening, they'd post propaganda in the press and newspapers that they also owned to provoke other countries into the war so they could sell weapons to them too.

At the end of the day, war = profit and as long as that's true, the eponymous "merchants of death" will do everything in their (immense) power to prevent world peace. Morality, love of one's country, none of that matters to them as long as the war machine keeps chugging along and filling their bank accounts.

Sad to say that here in 2022 nothing has changed. Some of the exact same companies and families mentioned by name in this book are still doing the same things today, only on an even bigger scale.

This should be required reading for all kids growing up.

[Mayur Sinha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book shows how these merchants of death profit from human suffering by selling weapons and military equipment to nations, often encouraging or exacerbating conflicts for their own financial gain. They highlight the connections between arms manufacturers and governments, showing how profits often take precedence over peace and humanity. Although its a 90 year old book but very much relevant to this day. The main lesson from this book is the dangerous influence of the arms industry on global politics and the devastating impact it has on peace efforts.

[Fabian Mariño]

https://www.amazon.de/Merchants-Death...

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning was great. The pace was nice and there was a lot of easily ingestible information.

About 30% of the way through, it felt like trying to fit a square in a circle. I couldn’t bring myself to continue, stopped at 37%

[_ tara_bauer_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry and took a long time to read yet interesting

[Heidi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book had poor timing to call for disarmment (though it fairly gave a case for both sides) because we all know now what happened next, but at the same time, WWII reinforced the views of the authors. Every time I read about 'Krupp', the German armament company, I thought of the Krampus.