Norman Angell and the Futility of War: Peace and the Public Mind

175 Pages·1986·16.26 MB·English

by  J. D. B. Miller (auth.)

NORMAN ANGELL AND THE FUTILITY OF WAR
NORMAN ANGELL
AND THE
FUTILITY OF WAR
Peace and the Public Mind
]. D. B. Miller
Professor of International Relations
Research School of Pacific Studies
Australian National University, Canberra
Palgrave Macmillan
© J. D. B. Miller 1986
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986
All rights reserved. For information, write:
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Published in the United Kingdom by The Macmillan Press Ltd.
First published in the United States of America in 1986.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Miller, J. D. B. Oohn Donald Bruce), 1922-
Norman Angell and the futility of war.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Peace. 2. War. 3. Angell, Norman, Sir,
1874-1967. I. Title.
JX1952.M514 1986 327.1'72 85-18378
ISBN 978-1-349-07525-6 ISBN 978-1-349-07523-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07523-2
For Dan and Joanna
Contents
Priface IX
1. LIFE AND ASSOCIATIONS
2. ILLUSION AND FUTILITY 25
3. PUBLIC MIND AND COLLECTIVE 53
SECURITY
4. HISTORY AND ANGELL'S PROPOSITIONS: 79
THE TWO WORLD WARS
5. NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND 105
INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY
6. OPINION, IDEALS AND REALISM 124
Notes and Riferences 143
Bibliography 154
Index 163
VB
Preface
People who produce ideas about public affairs - especially
international affairs - are rarely original in everything they say,
and are sometimes inconsistent. Moreover, they are inclined to
repeat themselves. These assertions can be made about Norman
Angell, as about John Stuart Mill and Edmund Burke. However,
each of these men had things to say which were of major
importance in their time, and which remain relevant because of
the insight they display.
In this book I have tried to explain Norman Angell's ideas,
and to consider how significant they have proved to be. He is
remembered mainly as the author of The Great Illusion, and
incorrectly as the man who said war was impossible because it
would not pay. In this particular connection his ideas need to be
clearly stated so that there is less room for error about what he
actually said. In addition, however, he was greatly concerned
with questions involving public opinion, or what he called the
public mind - issues of what people believed the world of states
to be like, of how support for war was engendered, of whether
education could work for peace rather than against it.
Confronted by the basic anarchy of the international system,
and by the apparent determination of peoples to put national
power and unrealisable national objectives ahead of peace and
prosperity, Angell strove to find rational solutions which could
be made acceptable to the people around him. Realistic and
sceptical by nature, he continued in this vein in spite of setbacks
and disappointments. The problems which he addressed have
changed in some respects because of technological change and
shifts in world power; but they continue to trouble us to such an
extent that Angell's solutions, together with the difficulties he
encountered, are still of value. How far his realism extended, and
whether he should be seen as an impractical idealist, are matters
of importance which are considered here.
IX
x Preface
The book begins with a brief account of Angell's life and
associations, proceeds to discuss his main ideas, and goes on to
ask how history has dealt with his propositions, and what lessons
we can learn from him.
Numerous people have helped me with this enterprise. Foremost
among them are Eric Lane (Angell's nephew) and his family,
including John Jacoby. I am also much indebted to Ball State
University, Indiana, in particular to the Special Collections
section of the Bracken Library, where Angell's papers are kept.
Other libraries which have assisted me are those of the Australian
National University, the University of Cambridge, the University
of Oxford (Bodleian Library), the London School of Economics
(British Library of Political and Economic Science), and
Columbia and Princeton Universities.
Amongst people who have given me information and criticism,
and to whom I am truly grateful, are Louis Bisceglia, Hedley
Bull, Alice Everard, William T. R. Fox, F. H. Hinsley, Anna
Hohri, Michael Howard, Robert Huston, Martin Indyk, James
Joll, James Lees-Milne, Toby Miller and James Piscatori. It
would have been difficult to produce the manuscript on time
without the careful management of Glenys Noble. Lynne Payne
was a most understanding typist.
A large part of the book was written in the house of Dan and
Joanna Rose, to whom it is dedicated. Words cannot express the
delight of being part of their family; but they already know
something of how I feel, and the rest can be sensed.
My wife has given me the support, encouragement and criticism
which time has led me to expect, but which always seem new
and exciting.
J. D. B. M.
1 Life and Associations
Norman Angell's life included an adventurous youth followed by
journalism in Europe and a time of intense activity resulting from
the publication of The Great Illusion, his most famous book.
Thereafter, his life as a publicist was divided into four distinct
periods. The first was World War I, which was traumatic and
led to a rearrangement of his associations. The second was the
period between the wars, in which he was knighted, was in and
out of Parliament, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and
in which he became one of the foremost proponents of the
movement for collective security; World War II, which he spent
in the United States arguing the British case, was the third. The
fourth was the period from World War II until his death, when,
aware of possible Soviet aggression, he continued to concentrate
on the problems of war and of the public approach to it.
In over sixty years his published output was enormous - more
than forty books and countless articles. He was also involved with
a variety of public figures and public movements. In this chapter
there is a brief account of his life and connections.
I
Angell 'had a short and spare figure with sharp-cut features,
conspicuous brow, and a pale complexion.'! He was frequently
ill, suffering for many years from migraine and sleeplessness, yet
he was a fearless small-boat sailor and an inveterate writer; he
embarked on a lecture-tour of the United States after his ninetieth
birthday. All who met him were struck by the power of his
intellect and his devotion to reason. 'I do not think I have known
anyone animated by a purer and more consistent intellectual
passion than Norman Angell', said Mary Agnes Hamilton.
'Literally, he lives to serve the truth; it is his meat and drink, his
game, his absorbing and unremitting, and wholly disinterested,
1
2 Norman Angell and the Futility oj War
interest; the thing that makes him go; it has been so throughout
his active life.'2 Indeed, his emphasis upon rationality was one of
the charges often brought against him by critics. Whether
criticised or extolled, it was a constant theme in reviews of his
books.
He was a man who, although normally alone, loved his nephews
and nieces, and was adopted into many homes in Britain and the
United States as an honorary uncle. He had no direct family of
his own. He was reticent about his early marriage, but in a letter
written in 1951 described it as occurring fifty-five years before to
an American woman whom he 'should have divorced as soon as
I discovered the nature of her previous life and the character
formed by it ... and whom I married for what seems to me now
a completely absurd scruple'. The letter implies that the wife,
from whom he had separated shortly after the marriage, may still
have been alive.3 The bitterness of this experience, so obviously
real to him after fifty years, must have combined with his migraine
to overshadow much of his life; but there is no hint of this in the
bulk of his letters and books. Fairness to opponents, independence
of thought, and patience in exposition were his normal character
istics. Yet it is important to recognise that he was a man of deep
convictions, strong opinions, and great love for his family and
friends. He was no 'desiccated calculating machine' (to use a
phrase of Aneurin Bevan's), but a man of both reason and passion
who longed to see passion put to good use.4
He also possessed a strong love of place. Northey Island, the
island connected by a causeway to the Essex coast, where he lived
and farmed between the wars, remained in his mind as the perfect
place to live, long after he had sold it; fortunately he returned
there often, since it remained in his family. He left his impression
on it in the house which he built, the strawboard of his own
design with which he covered the inside walls, and the small
circular towers on the wall enclosing the garden - for which he
laid the bricks himself. A plaque on the house says that he 'wrote,
built and sailed here from 1923-1967'; and it is easy to imagine
his spirit as an accompaniment wherever one walks.
II
Ralph Norman Angell Lane (he changed his name later) was
born on Boxing Day 1872 at Holbeach, Lincolnshire, the son of
Thomas Angell Lane, a successful draper and grocer. He was the