To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918

Adam Hochschild

Apr 2011 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

In this riveting and suspenseful New York Times best-selling book, Adam Hochschild brings WWI to life as never before...

World War I was supposed to be the “war to end all wars.” Over four long years, nations around the globe were sucked into the tempest, and millions of men died on the battlefields. To this day, the war stands as one of history’s most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation.

To End All Wars focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war’s critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Many of these dissenters were thrown in jail for their opposition to the war, from a future Nobel Prize winner to an editor behind bars who distributed a clandestine newspaper on toilet paper. These critics were sometimes intimately connected to their enemy hawks: one of Britain’s most prominent women pacifist campaigners had a brother who was commander in chief on the Western Front. Two well-known sisters split so bitterly over the war that they ended up publishing newspapers that attacked each other.

Hochschild forces us to confront the big questions: Why did so many nations get so swept up in the violence? Why couldn’t cooler heads prevail? And can we ever avoid repeating history?

Ratings and reviews

This is the first Hochschild book that I have read, and I intend to continue in his omnibus. I am a historian, but was almost immediately struck with the style and plot flow of this book--specifically how much it mirrored that of some of the great English novels. I have recommended this book to several of my novel-exclusive friends who also loved it. I should caution that this book gives nothing like a complete account of the war. It has a decidedly Anglo-centric perspective. But to contain the same level of political detail of or insight into all the involved powers would take ten books.

Interesting weave of history and personalities. Some fresh material for an exhausted subject. Does tend to drag at times.

I knew so little about WW1 and this book was a delight. I love how the author weaves together various historical figures throughout the narrative.

About the author

ADAM HOCHSCHILD is the author of eleven books. King Leopold’s Ghost was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as was To End All Wars. His Bury the Chains was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN USA Literary Award. He lives in Berkeley, California.