Here is a great rarity - a book by Bertrand Russell that has long been out of print. This book was written in the early months of the First World War and demands republication on many grounds. Here is Russell's brilliant commentary on the barbarism of trench warfare, and his horror at the blind, patriotic enthusiasm of his contemporaries who sent a whole generation to their death. Russell also raises a number of enduring questions on war and peace which remain crucial. How are wars popularized? When are they justified? Should diplomacy be secret? What should be the role of intellectuals? Must nation states endure? Can civilization survive?

The reader sees the development of the style which was to serve Russell for fifty more years: his detailed examination of contemporary events, his provocative formulation of alternatives and his total fearlessness in debate in such adverse circumstances. Tragically we can also see how Russell was decades ahead of his time. It was for holding the views in this book, and acting on them, that he was fined, deprived of his university lectureship at Cambridge, and finally sent to prison. Throughout his long life, Bertrand Russell used his pen unsparingly against warfare, yet surprisingly this book contains more of his views on war and peace than any other.