First American edition of this putatively anti-war anthology on state-of-the-art mechanized warfare, published in 1933 by Harrison Smith and Robert Haas. Basically, a trade edition intended for widespread distribution of an expensive, limited edition inquiry organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva, and written by “18 of the World’s Greatest Experts” representing Great Britain, Sweden, France, USA, Switzerland, Japan, Denmark, Germany, and Greece. Upon its publication in England, the New Statesman and Nation said: “This is the most terrible book which has ever been written…The pages read smoothly enough as long as they deal with the tactics of mechanized armies, the organization of industry for war, and the effect of war on national finance. But the later chapters deal with the use of aircraft to break the civilian will for war; and these pages are terrible. They pile nightmare on nightmare.” Driving home the point, or perhaps just hoping for plausible deniability at a fraught moment in history, the publishers note that “if the book is terrible it is as profoundly successful propaganda against war as could be devised…it is published in the sincere hope that its chapters which envisage the destruction of our civilization will be received with the same reasoned logic with which they are written.” 8vo, hardcover, 420 pages. With an evocative pictorial dust jacket depicting the drumbeat of war by Gyula Zilzer (1898-1969) a Jewish, communist Hungarian/American Expressionist artist whose engravings from the 1930’s foresaw the Holocaust. Scarce with the dust jacket. Light rubbing to edge-chipped dj, with several open tears to top and bottom edges and center of spine, and one closed tear to rear cover. Moderate damp staining to dj spine, affecting cloth spine but not boards.
First American edition of this putatively anti-war anthology on state-of-the-art mechanized warfare, published in 1933 by Harrison Smith and Robert Haas. Basically, a trade edition intended for widespread distribution of an expensive, limited edition inquiry organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva, and written by “18 of the World’s Greatest Experts” representing Great Britain, Sweden, France, USA, Switzerland, Japan, Denmark, Germany, and Greece. Upon its publication in England, the New Statesman and Nation said: “This is the most terrible book which has ever been written…The pages read smoothly enough as long as they deal with the tactics of mechanized armies, the organization of industry for war, and the effect of war on national finance. But the later chapters deal with the use of aircraft to break the civilian will for war; and these pages are terrible. They pile nightmare on nightmare.” Driving home the point, or perhaps just hoping for plausible deniability at a fraught moment in history, the publishers note that “if the book is terrible it is as profoundly successful propaganda against war as could be devised…it is published in the sincere hope that its chapters which envisage the destruction of our civilization will be received with the same reasoned logic with which they are written.” 8vo, hardcover, 420 pages. With an evocative pictorial dust jacket depicting the drumbeat of war by Gyula Zilzer (1898-1969) a Jewish, communist Hungarian/American Expressionist artist whose engravings from the 1930’s foresaw the Holocaust. Scarce with the dust jacket. Light rubbing to edge-chipped dj, with several open tears to top and bottom edges and center of spine, and one closed tear to rear cover. Moderate damp staining to dj spine, affecting cloth spine but not boards.
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