To End All Wars

A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918

By: Adam Hochschild

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

World War I stands as one of history's most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes.

Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain's leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates 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.

Today, hundreds of military cemeteries spread across the fields of northern France and Belgium contain the bodies of millions of men who died in the "war to end all wars". Can we ever avoid repeating history?

©2011 Adam Hochschild (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[Hochschild] has written an original, engrossing account that gives the war's opponents (largely English) prominent place." ( Publishers Weekly)

"The lives of the author’s many characters dovetail elegantly in this moving, accessible book...An ambitious narrative that presents a teeming worldview through intimate, human portraits." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"This is a book to make one feel deeply and painfully, and also to think hard." (Christopher Hitchens, New York Times Book Review)

Unbelievable

This is one of the best books I've ever read (well, heard.) Hochschild weaves hundreds of strands of history into a gripping and compelling narrative. As soon as I finished I just started it over. And Arthur Morey does a superb job - even if the book wasn't so fantastic, it would be worth listening to just to hear him.

THEY SAVED US ALL

If you could sum up To End All Wars in three words, what would they be?

If the Germans had pushed the British INTO THE SEA (3 words)--PERSONALLY ON A DAY TO DAY LEVEL-- what would have happened to us Americans-- you, Adam Hochschild, ME?

Who was your favorite character and why?

Good grief! ALL THE WOMEN: Emmeline Pankhurst, Charlotte Despard and all the Suffragists.

What about Arthur Morey’s performance did you like?

He was very good. For me the book with its painful descriptions of a battlefield out of Dante's Inferno (in the rain) I wish he had been more emotional. I'm not sure they allow that in a political and military history.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES! But the author had two books in one and the British military history was the pilot fish and simply didn't belong. BUT THE MILITARY HISTORY WAS THE BEST PART.. It's the first time I've said this about a military history: it was BEAUTIFULLY written. There were embarrassed tears for me as I read of the Indian cavalry and their poor horses riding into bullets. A British soldier stuck in mud, driven insane over four days impossible to save. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for years trying to contact his son in seances. Empire loving Rudyard Kipling driven half insane upon losing "my son Jack." A mother who writes letters to a son months after she knows him to missing and killed.

Any additional comments?

Adam Hochschild unintended, subliminal message is that the British soldier stuck in that sticky, stinking, gas poisoned, feces and body parts filled mud--DIED FOR NOTHING in hopeless attacks, led by that dumbest donkey, General Haig. But there is another STORY in all that gory detail. They didn't quit.

A history of silence

Excellent history of the few in England who objected to fighting a war in France but too few for a great narrative. Some interesting characters and tales but thin. Still, informative and well written.

Just fantastic

Would you consider the audio edition of To End All Wars to be better than the print version?

If you don't understand how we got from the 18th Century thought to what became 20th century thought listen to this book. It shows the visionaries, and the old traditionalist, and how each was wrong and right. How each ones actions drove the other to do some things, and how they helped the other realize folly in what they were doing. How millions of lives were wasted, and the Generals and Leaders looked at things wrong rating victory by how many of their own were sacrificed, instead of looking at ground gained (generally none) or enemy troops felled.

What does Arthur Morey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Arthur Morey is an excellent reader and his intonation helps to bring depth to the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

World War 1 a turning point for the world.

Easy read and tragic history.

What I liked most about the book was how it talked about the homefront and how the war was changing it. It gave me a new perspective from the eyes of those against the war. Very refreshing read compared to most ww1 books that talk about logistics, combat strategies and frontline stories.

Fascinating

Where does To End All Wars rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Great look at the absurdity of this war. Anything written by Hochschild is well researched, well written and well thought out. Highly recommend.

good, but not for a first WW I read

Hochschild focuses on Britain, and thus may seem skewed to some. There are some admirable characters, but there plenty of flaws to go around. Hochschild makes it clear that Britain was changing, but that the upper class, for the most part, wanted to hold on to its rights and privileges. And that led to a blinkered army leadership which rewarded class and longevity while ignoring changes in technology. Generals French and Haig were firm believers in cavalry, but refused to see that barbed wire and machine guns had made cavalry irrelevant. Looking back from the present, it is unfathomable that these men could throw the lives of so many Britons. But then they did refuse to look at the battlefield and see he carnage.
Hochschild spends a lot of time chronicling the conscientious objector movement and gives them kudos. But almost all Britons were proud of their empire, so c.o.s were vilified. Vilified to the poin that police and political leaders manufactured evidence to take them off the streets and into jail.
Hochschild looks at the private lives of people from both sides, and everyone has at least one flaw. Personally, I had a harder time forgiving the upper class as those persons seemed less perturbed by their conduct than those of the lower classes.
Hochschild does gloss over much of the fighting, but he does offer a different way of viewing the war. I would recommend Max hastins' "Catastrophe" as an excellent observation of the war in 1914.

Aristocracy

What made the experience of listening to To End All Wars the most enjoyable?

Enjoyable is not the right word. Seeing how sick that the British aristocracy were in their attitudes toward their fellow man was disgraceful. It was appalling to see how this 1% acted.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The mixing of the struggles of women and the working class into an anti-war movement was a hopeful sign that did not pan out. The co-option of the media and some of the leaders of the women's movement was disappointing.The long history of the mistreatment of the shell shocked and PTSD victims was a reminder of some our present troubles.

Any additional comments?

I wish that reading this book would lead more people and countries to reject war as an option. Until we see the idiocy of war, there will always be those pushing us to engage in combat.

Fantastic History

If you could sum up To End All Wars in three words, what would they be?

Best WW1history ever

Any additional comments?

Excellent side stories, and comparative statistics that really bring the extent of the tragedy to light.

astonishing book interweaves the personal stories

Would you listen to To End All Wars again? Why?

yes because it was a perfect blend of history and biographical sketches

What did you like best about this story?

the description of war resisters not usually found in books about this war

Have you listened to any of Arthur Morey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

the epilogue

Any additional comments?

a very remarkable book