WAR AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION By Major-General J. F. C. Fuller
General Fuller's War and Western Civilization : 1834-1932 (Duckworth, 10s.) is mainly a survey of the wars of the past century and of the slow evolution of new military ideas. But the author's object is to emphasize the imperative need for friendly co-operation between European nations so that the causes of war may as far as possible be removed. He is pessimistic about the dangers that he foresees in Russia and Asia, and he seems inclined at times to doubt whether war can ever be abolished. He disapproves of qualitative disarmament because it would mean long protracted wars in future ; the tank, for instance, shortened the closing operations of the late War and minimized casualties. He would favour small professional armies rather than conscript masses—a view which appears to be implied in the new French proposals for Geneva. General Fuller regards democracy with dislike because it is easily swayed to clamour for war, but despots have in the past been afflicted by a similar mania. His book is suggestive, as all General Fuller's books are, but it is rather disappointing as a whole.
Previous page
