The War That Didn’t End All War

H.G. Wells is remembered primarily for his science-fiction works, but he also coined a phrase that for a century has been linked with World War I. As the world marks the centennial of that war’s fateful beginning, we ask: Can a war end all war?

Today, as the world marks the 100-year anniversary of the conflict’s fateful beginning, World War I continues to be fertile ground for authors. Vision reviews three new books on the subject.

Like so many problems in the Middle East, the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians has some of its roots in World War I, a war that has cast a long shadow over the past hundred years.

President Woodrow Wilson is probably most remembered for his devotion to the cause of world peace in the forming of the League of Nations.

A look back over two thousand years of nearly continuous warfare suggests that violent conflict is inevitable in the human sphere.

“To understand war, we must understand ourselves.”

Since at least the time of Homer and his epic account of the Trojan War, people have glorified warfare and reveled in it as entertainment.

The story of humanity is in large part the story of animosity and violence. What is it about people that leads them to treat one another as adversaries?

World War I has been described as the war to end all war. The ensuing years—most notably, the Second World War—showed that this thought was ridiculously naïve.