War and the Future
First edition | |
Author | H. G. Wells |
---|---|
Original title | War and the Future: Italy, France and Britain at War |
Language | English |
Genre | Propaganda |
Publisher | Cassell & Company |
Publication date | 1917 |
Publication place | UK |
Media type | Print (hardback) |
Pages | 285 |
Preceded by | The Elements of Reconstruction |
Followed by | God the Invisible King |
War and the Future (1917) is a work of war propaganda by H. G. Wells that was published in North America under the title Italy, France, and Britain at War (the subtitle of the British original). Wells would have preferred the title The War of Ideas, but his publisher over-ruled him. Except for the opening piece, its chapters were published as articles in the press.[1] Though proclaiming early in the volume that "I avow myself an extreme Pacifist,"[2] Wells staunchly supported Britain's war against Germany "in the hope that so we and the world may be freed from the German will-to-power and all its humiliating and disgusting consequences henceforth for ever."[3]
Synopsis
War and the Future is divided into four parts.
In the first part, entitled "The Passing of the Effigy", Wells argues that "the great man of this war is the common man",[4] and sketches a portrait of General Joffre as "a single figure to stand for the finest quality of the Allies' war", on account of his "leadership without vulgar ambition...He is as it were the ordinary commonsense of men, incarnate."[5] In an account of a visit with the King of Italy, "the first king I had ever met",[6] Wells is struck by the monarch's lack of pomp and, indeed, regality.
The second part, titled "The War in Italy" (August 1916), describes the city of Udine and the mountain warfare of the Isonzo front as well as visits to Verona, Venice, and Milan.
The third part, "The Western War" (September 1916), describes visits to the Western Front near Arras and Soissons in France. Wells expresses confidence that methods of aerial dominance, combined with photography, have permitted the Allies to develop tactics that are sure ultimately to defeat Germany. Wells praises British soldiers but criticises the officer corps for its mental rigidity.[7] He emphasises that new technologies have transformed the art of war in ways that military professionals are all too slow to grasp. In particular, fighting in disciplined formations and cavalry are no longer of any military importance, while "[a]rtillery is now the most essential instrument of the war."[8] Wells describes a tour of a munitions factory given by André Citroën.[9] He devotes a chapter to tanks as "a beginning in a new phase of warfare"[10] noting that in 1903 he had described a tank in a short story ("The Land Ironclads").[11]
War and the Future's final part is entitled "How People Think about the War" and addresses a miscellany of subjects: (1) the failure of contemporaries to grasp the nature and causes of the war; (2) the psychology of what he calls "the Yielding Pacifist" (willing to accept any sort of peace), whose origins he finds in "the Resentful Employé," and of "the Conscientious Objector," pages he later deeply regretted;[12][13] (3) the effect of the war on religious thought; (4) French and Italian doubts about the British; (5) the effect of the war on future labour relations; (6) the prospects for ending the war. On the last subject, Wells saw a possibility of victory in 1917, but allowed that "the war, universally detested, may go on into 1918 or 1919."[14] Wells said that "America should ultimately undertake the responsibility of a world peace settlement."[15]
Background
Wells was a reluctant propagandist, as he states in the volume's early pages. Government censors attempted to excise his criticism of British military officers, but Wells ignored their excisions. He told his publisher his text had been approved, and told censors that he lost their revised proofs, though in fact he had burned them.[16]
Wells sailed for France on 8 Aug 1916. He visited the French front at Soissons, then went to Udine via Venice. He returned to France via Verona and Milan, visiting Arras, Dompierre, Fricourt, and Albert.[17]
Reception
The articles that are the basis of War and the Future were widely read, and the volume sold well.[18]
References
- ^ David C. Smith, H. G. Wells: Desperately Mortal: A Biography (Yale University Press, 1986), p. 547 n. 25.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 8.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 143.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 13.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 14.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 25.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 113.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 132.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), pp. 134–39.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 160.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 153.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), pp. 184–99
- ^ Vincent Brome, H. G. Wells: A Biography (Longmans, Green, 1951), p. 155.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 258.
- ^ H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War (New York: Macmillan, 1917), p. 267.
- ^ Vincent Brome, H. G. Wells: A Biography (Longmans, Green, 1951), p. 157.
- ^ Michael Sherborne, H. G. Wells: Another Kind of Life (Peter Owen, 2010), p. 233.
- ^ David C. Smith, H. G. Wells: Desperately Mortal: A Biography (Yale University Press, 1986), p. 229.
External links
- War and the Future at Project Gutenberg
- v
- t
- e
- The Time Machine (1895)
- The Wonderful Visit (1895)
- The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
- The Wheels of Chance (1896)
- The Invisible Man (1897)
- The War of the Worlds (1898)
- When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
- Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)
- The First Men in the Moon (1901)
- The Sea Lady (1902)
- The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904)
- Kipps (1905)
- A Modern Utopia (1905)
- In the Days of the Comet (1906)
- The War in the Air (1908)
- Tono-Bungay (1909)
- Ann Veronica (1909)
- The History of Mr Polly (1910)
- The Sleeper Awakes (1910)
- The New Machiavelli (1911)
- Marriage (1912)
- The Passionate Friends (1913)
- The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
- The World Set Free (1914)
- Bealby (1915)
- Boon (1915)
- The Research Magnificent (1915)
- Mr. Britling Sees It Through (1916)
- The Soul of a Bishop (1917)
- Joan and Peter (1918)
- The Undying Fire (1919)
- The Secret Places of the Heart (1922)
- Men Like Gods (1923)
- The Dream (1924)
- Christina Alberta's Father (1925)
- The World of William Clissold (1926)
- Meanwhile (1927)
- Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
- The Autocracy of Mr. Parham (1930)
- The Bulpington of Blup (1932)
- The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
- The Croquet Player (1936)
- Brynhild (1937)
- Star Begotten (1937)
- The Camford Visitation (1937)
- Apropos of Dolores (1938)
- The Brothers (1938)
- The Holy Terror (1939)
- Babes in the Darkling Wood (1940)
- All Aboard for Ararat (1940)
- You Can't Be Too Careful (1941)
- Anticipations
- Certain Personal Matters
- Crux Ansata
- The Discovery of the Future
- An Englishman Looks at the World
- Experiment in Autobiography
- The Fate of Man
- First and Last Things
- Floor Games
- The Future in America
- God the Invisible King
- In the Fourth Year
- Little Wars
- Mankind in the Making
- Mind at the End of Its Tether
- Mr. Belloc Objects to "The Outline of History"
- The New America
- The New World Order
- New Worlds for Old
- The Open Conspiracy
- The Outline of History
- Russia in the Shadows
- The Science of Life
- A Short History of the World
- The Story of a Great Schoolmaster
- This Misery of Boots
- Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water
- War and the Future
- The Way the World Is Going
- The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind
- World Brain
- A Year of Prophesying
- "Æpyornis Island"
- "The Argonauts of the Air"
- "The Beautiful Suit"
- "The Chronic Argonauts"
- "The Cone"
- "The Country of the Blind"
- "The Crystal Egg"
- "A Deal in Ostriches"
- "The Diamond Maker"
- "The Door in the Wall"
- "A Dream of Armageddon"
- "The Empire of the Ants"
- "In the Abyss"
- "The Land Ironclads"
- "Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation"
- "The Lord of the Dynamos"
- "The Man Who Could Work Miracles"
- "The New Accelerator"
- "The Pearl of Love"
- "The Plattner Story"
- "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper"
- "The Red Room"
- "The Sea Raiders"
- "The Star"
- "The Stolen Body"
- "A Story of the Days to Come"
- "A Story of the Stone Age"
- "Triumphs of a Taxidermist"
- "The Truth About Pyecraft"
- "A Vision of Judgment"
- Things to Come (1936)
- The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1937)
- Political views
- G. P. Wells
- Anthony West (son)
- Joseph Wells (father)
- Simon Wells (great-grandson)
- H. G. Wells Society
- Lunar crater
- Time After Time (1979 film)