The Great Illusion
Norman Angell set out to demolish a widely held belief of his age, that a great nation could enrich itself through military conquest. Writing on the eve of the First World War, he argued that the economies of industrial states had grown so interdependent that war among them could only destroy wealth on all sides, victor and vanquished alike. Credit, trade, and finance, he showed, do not follow the flag, and seizing territory yields no lasting profit. The book sold in huge numbers and gave rise to study circles and lecture tours across Europe. The catastrophe of 1914 seemed to mock its thesis, yet Angell had never promised that reason would prevail, only that war made no economic sense. This free PDF and EPUB edition brings his argument back into view.
