The Great Illusion

The Great Illusion

By Norman Angell.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Preface to the Fourth American Edition
4. Preface
5. Synopsis
6. The Great Illusion
   1. Part I: The Economics of the Case
      1. I: Statement of the Economic Case for War
      2. II: The Axioms of Modern Statecraft
      3. III: The Great Illusion
      4. IV: The Impossibility of Confiscation
      5. V: Foreign Trade and Military Power
      6. VI: The Indemnity Futility
      7. VII: How Colonies Are Owned
      8. VIII: The Fight for “The Place in the Sun”
   2. Part II: The Human Nature and Morals of the Case
      1. I: The Psychological Case for War
      2. II: The Psychological Case for Peace
      3. III: Unchanging Human Nature
      4. IV: Do the Warlike Nations Inherit the Earth?
      5. V: The Diminishing Factor of Physical Force: Psychological Results
      6. VI: The State as a Person: A False Analogy and Its Consequences
   3. Part III: The Practical Outcome
      1. I: The Relation of Defence to Aggression
      2. II: Armament, but Not Alone Armament
      3. III: Is the Political Reformation Possible?
      4. IV: Methods
7. Appendix
8. Endnotes
9. Colophon
10. Uncopyright

Imprint

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Preface to the Fourth American Edition

If this, the fourth American edition, is bulkier than its predecessors, it is chiefly because the events of the last two years throw an interesting light upon the bearing of the book’s main thesis on actual world problems. I have, therefore, added an appendix dealing with certain criticisms based upon the nature of the first Balkan War, in the course of which I attempt to show just how the principles elaborated here have been working out in European politics.

That American interest in the problems here discussed is hardly less vital than that of Europe I am even more persuaded than when the first American edition of this book was issued in 1910. It is certain that opinion in America will not be equipped for dealing with her own problems arising out of her relations with the Spanish American states, with Japan, with the Philippines, unless it has some fair understanding of the principles with which this book deals. Its general interest even goes farther than this: no great community like that of modern America can remain indifferent to the drift of general opinion throughout the world on matters wrapped up with issues so important as those of war and peace.

That the tangible commercial and business interests of America are involved in these European events is obvious from the very factors of financial and commercial interdependence which form the basis of the argument.

That the interests of Americans are inextricably, if indirectly, bound up with those of Europe, has become increasingly clear as can be proved by the barest investigation of the trend of political thought in this country.

The thesis on its economic side is discussed in terms of the gravest problem which now faces European statesmanship, but these terms are also the living symbols of a principle of universal application, as true with reference to American conditions as to European. If I have not “localized” the discussion by using illustrations drawn from purely American cases, it is because these problems have not at present, in the United States, reached the acute stage that they have in Europe, and illustrations drawn from the conditions of an actual and pressing problem give to any discussion a reality which to some extent it might lose if discussed on the basis of more supposititious cases.

It so happens, however, that in the more abstract section of the discussion embraced in the second part, which I have termed the “Human Nature of the Case,” I have gone mainly to American authors for the statement of cases based on those illusions with which the book deals.

For this edition I have thought it worth while thoroughly to revise the whole of the book and to rewrite the chapter on the payment of the French Indemnity, in order to clear up a misunderstanding to which in its first form it gave rise. Part III has also been rewritten, in order to meet the changed form of criticism which has resulted from the discussion of this subject during the last year or two.

It is with very great regret that I have seen this book grow in bulk; but as it constitutes the statement of a thesis still revolutionary, it has to cover the whole ground of the discussion, sometimes in great detail. I have, however, adopted an arrangement and method of presentation by which, I trust, the increase in bulk will not render it less clear. The general arrangement is as follows:

The Synopsis is a very brief indication of the scope of the whole argument, which is not that war is impossible, but that it is futile⁠—useless,