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Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II
Writing before, during and just after World War I, G. K. Chesterton describes what has gone wrong with Germany and warns that, if Germany is not forced to reform, that war will be followed by another and more horrible war. In these 111 articles, Chesterton criticizes militarism and debates the paths to peace being advocated by pacifists and internationalists. He also harshly criticizes a then-fashionable form of racism that would later be adopted by Nazism, making him one of Hitler's first foes. These articles are extensively commented and footnoted to explain the context in which Chesterton wrote. In the back are appendices with articles on war and peace by Thomas Acquinas, Winston Churchill, Norman Angell, Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Mahatma Gandhi, and H. G. Wells
448 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2008
About the author
G.K. Chesterton
4,608 books5,930 followersGilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.
He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.
Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.
He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.
Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.
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June 2, 2011
This book is a collection of G.K. Chesterton's writings of war, peace, and foreign policy from the years before World War I, through the war, and into the aftermath. The collection provides an excellent example of his thought. In addition to his trademark wit and wisdom, it also shows the development of his views on various topics, particularly on the subject of Germany. I found this enlightening, because much of his later work is so critical of Germany, that he appeared extremely prejudiced against that country. This collection shows how Germany actions led to his negative views.
The major weakness in Chesterton's work is that he wrote at a time when Christianity was almost an exclusively Western/European phenomenon, so his characterization of Western civilization as the exclusive home of Christianity gets a bit tiring at times. While I found Chesterton's articles excellent, I was a bit disappointed with the editor of this volume. He sought to draw parallels to contemporary society to the phenomena that Chesterton discusses. While I think that Chesterton's arguments certainly have much to say to the contemporary reader, I thought that the editor's comments reflected his own agenda much more than providing an accurate reading of Chesterton's actual positions.
The major weakness in Chesterton's work is that he wrote at a time when Christianity was almost an exclusively Western/European phenomenon, so his characterization of Western civilization as the exclusive home of Christianity gets a bit tiring at times. While I found Chesterton's articles excellent, I was a bit disappointed with the editor of this volume. He sought to draw parallels to contemporary society to the phenomena that Chesterton discusses. While I think that Chesterton's arguments certainly have much to say to the contemporary reader, I thought that the editor's comments reflected his own agenda much more than providing an accurate reading of Chesterton's actual positions.
Displaying 1 of 1 review