To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild

More than 16 million people died in World War I. 21 million more suffered injuries as a result of the conflict. In total, close to forty million casualties in a war that we now know did more to destabilize the world in the years that followed than secure any kind of lasting peace. Adam Hochschild’s To End All Wars (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28) is a brilliant and moving account of the circumstances surrounding the war and the lasting effect it had on the people involved.

What separates Hochschild’s book from others on the same topic is that it is less an account of how and why the war started, and more a study of a number of high-profile individuals and their personal campaigns for and against the conflict.

Such was the variety (and strength) of opinions on the war that divisions often emerged within families, resulting in bitter, lifelong disputes that never resolved themselves. Emmeline Pankhurst, the famed women’s rights activist, had always been a vocal opponent of war in general but, seeing the threat from Germany as one that endangered the entirety of mankind, she readily threw her support behind the Allied effort. Her daughters Adela and Sylvia, however, held the opposite view and very quickly found themselves excommunicated and publicly denounced by their mother. It is known that their relationship remained unrepaired for the rest of their lives.

The famous English writer Rudyard Kipling, as vociferous a supporter of the war as ever there was, found himself facing a personal crisis, too. His beloved son, John, was killed in action and Kipling was heartbroken. He had to reconcile his love for his country with the sacrifice of his son’s life in defence of it; could any parent say that such an exchange was worthwhile?

It is hard to overstate the importance of books like To End All Wars. As time inevitably marches on, the costs and repercussions of war become increasingly remote from our consciousness, we seem to forget the death and destruction. We need books like this to remind ourselves what war really is and the horrors it involves — horrors whose effects endure far beyond the echoes of the last shot fired.

Wilfred Owen called the supposed glory of dying in battle “the old lie”. Mark Twain called war the “atrocity of atrocities”. In light of the extended military engagements in which we are currently embroiled and the prospect of prolonged fighting in a string of other countries, it is hard not to feel a sense of futility: Between war and peace, the former appears to be our more natural state. One hopes (with luck not foolishly) that one day this will no longer be true.

To End All Wars will be on bookshelves May 3rd. Order now at HMHBooks.com.