Chesterton on War and Peace

the long version

Shortly after G. K. Chesterton's death, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a American Jewish leader, had this to say about G. K. Chesterton: "Indeed, I was a warm admirer of Gilbert Chesterton.... When Hitlerism came, he was one of the first to speak out with all the directness and frankness of a great and unabashed spirit. Blessings to his memory." This book is a collection of articles that Chesterton wrote before, during, and just after World War I, in which warned of the danger that Germany posed to the peace of Europe. His criticism of the German worldview at that time led directly to his criticism of "Hitlerism" that Rabbi Wise would later praise. In 1932, Chesterton would warn that Germany would soon turn to a dictatorship and, if not hindered by the leaders of Britain and France, soon lead Europe into a war that would begin over a border dispute between Germany and Poland. Dictatorship came in 1932 and war came in 1939, precisely as Chesterton had warned. Chesterton should be placed alongside Churchill as one of the few who warned of the threat Germany posed to peace.