The Pity of War

Contemporary Review, Feb, 1999 by James Munson

Niall Ferguson. Allen Lane: The Penguin Press. [pounds]18.99. 624 pages. ISBN 0-713-99246-8.

Publishers marked the eightieth anniversary of the ending of the Great War with a host of new titles of which four are reviewed here. The first, and largest, is Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War. This is one of those books in which an historian amasses the work done by others, combined with his own original research, in order to look afresh at the subject. The author set himself various questions and reached conclusions that some general readers will find unusual.

War was not inevitable, he argues. Germany risked war in her support of Austria-Hungary not because she was so strong, but because she was so weak. Britain's decision to go to war was because a select few in the government and military felt that France must he supported, a view based on a misreading of Germany's aims. It was a tragic decision of a divided government headed by a philandering drunkard. Lukewarm Ministers agreed to war because they knew a divided cabinet would collapse. It was Britain who made a European war into a world war. There was no wave of patriotic feeling and enlistments were as much due to high unemployment among young men as to patriotic fervour. Propaganda did not need government direction and kept the home fires burning while having little effect on the men in the trenches. Germany made better use of her economic resources than did Britain and, with her allies, fought a better war.

Because the author is an economic historian economic considerations get a large amount of attention and sometimes this becomes a bit wearisome. However this is compensated by the author's willingness to examine received opinion and to see how ultimately futile the war was from Britain's point of view: if anything was 'ordained' it was that Germany would come to dominate Europe, whether through a military victory or through economic domination of a 'united Europe'. His analysis of military life and of the average soldier's views is refreshingly honest and free of the sentimental cant which usually accompanies such a discussion. This is a stimulating book and well worth the effort required to read it.

The second title reviewed here is Henry Williamson's A Patriot's Progress, and is the most intimate. Henry Williamson, who died in 1977, is best remembered for his book, Tarka the Otter, but his greatest literary output was his fifteen volume series of novels, A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight, which drew on his own life and experiences. These included his experiences during the Great War. In 1914 he enlisted as a private in the London Rifle Brigade and later was a Second Lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps. This book, written by Williamson's daughter-in-law, makes use of the letters, diaries and notebooks which he wrote during the war to give us a first-hand impression of life in the trenches.

This well edited combination of letters, reminiscences and linking material moves steadily from Henry Williamson's 'dreamy youth' to his days and nights in the trenches. One of the many moving selections is a letter written to his mother on Boxing Day 1914 in which he described the fraternisation that occurred on Christmas Day between Empire and German troops. (The experience was never to be repeated.) An extra attraction to the book is Chapter Seven in which the author describes how her father-in-law coped with demobilisation and the return to 'civilian' life or what he called 'a strange world'.

The third title reviewed is Letters from a Lost Generation, the collection of letters written to and from Vera Brittain and her brother, her fiance and two friends, all of whom were 'in the war'. For once the term, 'lost generation' applies for all four men were killed. The letters, which were kept by Vera Brittain and later formed the basis of her Testament of Youth, cover the years 1913 to 1918 and, because of the skilful editing, evoke a lost world. They give us a unique glimpse into the lives of these five people and are a valuable addition to our published sources on the War.

The final book reviewed here is Malcolm Brown's 1918: Year of Victory which surveys the most dramatic year of the war. At one time it looked as if Germany was winning but within weeks German military leaders were suing for an armistice. Mr Brown tells the story of this last year on the Western Front and draws largely on the holdings, both manuscript and printed, in the Imperial War Museum. These add greatly to the text. The last words should be those from a veteran of the war who later wrote: 'The men who had fought and suffered, on both sides, had had their fill of war and were ready for a peace based on Christian concord without malice . . . but the politicians took control and imposed a vindictive treaty . . . All our subsequent troubles and frustrations date from that; the supreme opportunity was thrown away.'

JAMES MUNSON