Слике страница
PDF
ePub

42

G

THENALY

Germany Since 1740

By GEORGE MADISON PRIEST
Princeton University

$1.25

For the student of current German history "Germany Since 1740" offers a background of singular fitness in explaining existing conditions. It describes political and social conditions in Germany early in the eighteenth century, the reigns of Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great and chronologically the disintegration of Germany as a federation of states, the uprising of the German people, the downfall of Napoleon at Leipsic and Waterloo, and succeeding events to the outbreak of the war in August, 1914.

The book is well provided with maps, a chronological table and suggestions for further reading in German history.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The

History Teacher's Magazine

Published monthly, except July and August, at 1619-1621 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, Pa., by MCKINLEY PUBLISHING CO.

EDITED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, composed of:

PROF. HENRY JOHNSON, Teachers' College, Columbia University, Chairman.

PROF. FRED. M. FLING, University of Nebraska.

MISS ANNA B. THOMPSON, Thayer Academy, South Braintree, Mass.

PROF. FREDERIC DUNCALF, University of Texas.
PROF. O. H. WILLIAMS, University of Indiana.
DR. JAMES SULLIVAN, Director of Archives and History, New
York State Department of Education.

ALBERT E. McKINLEY, Ph.D., Managing Editor

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, two dollars a year; single copies, twenty cents each.

REDUCED RATE of one dollar a year is granted to members of the American Historical Association, and to members of local and regional associations of history teachers. Such subscriptions must be sent direct to the publishers or through the secretaries of associations (but not through subscription agencies).

POSTAGE PREPAID in United States and Mexico; for Canada, twenty cents additional should be added to the subscription price, and for other foreign countries in the Postal Union, thirty cents additional. CHANGE OF ADDRESS Both the old and the new address must be given when a change of address is ordered. ADVERTISING RATES furnished upon application.

Volume VIII. Number 2.

PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1917.

$2.00 a year. 20 cents a copy.

War and Peace in the Light of History

BY CARL CONRAD ECKHARDT, PH.D., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO.

When I was requested to bring a message that history teachers need just at this time, I did not take a long time to choose; I selected "War and Peace in the Light of History." What I shall say to you I have been saying to myself many a time in the last two years, when it seemed that the main interest in present-day history is centered in war and wholesale destruction by the most advanced nations of the Occident and Orient. So it seemed fitting to consider what part war and peace have played in history, what the attitude of mankind has been toward both, and what the efforts are that have been made to eliminate war and to establish permanent peace.

History is the account of man's progress in society. It deals with man's efforts to develop his material, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being. While making these efforts he has had great obstacles to overcome, the forces of nature and himself; and man has been far more successful in overcoming the physical and biological forces of nature than in conquering human nature. By mechanical and electrical inventions, man has made steam and electricity do most of his work; he has annihilated distance; he has learned to fly in the air, to make submarines, to send messages by wireless. The desert has been made to bloom; the waterfall has been made to supply power to the wheels of industry; the mines of the earth have been forced to yield up their treasures; the phonograph records for all time the tones of our greatest singers and musicians.

Through man's understanding of biology and biological laws he has learned to create new varieties of vegetation, better breeds of animals. He has enabled the toothless man to chew, the armless.man to do many mechanical acts by means of artificial arms; the deaf are provided with a hearing apparatus. Through surgical operations man has learned to give life to the dying child, by transmitting the blood from the veins of a well person. Through vaccination and other preventive measures man has been made immune to typhoid, smallpox, diphtheria, colds, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, the black plague.

Man has conquered nature and is conquering disease, but he cannot conquer himself. Man is his own worst enemy. He is working on many social problems, and with marked success. He is trying to become master of himself in his social relations, but his success here is not as striking as in his conquest of nature. Man has as yet been unable to wrestle successfully with the problem of eliminating war, the most costly and destructive enemy of social progress that he has yet encountered.

In all recorded history we find that there have been intermittent wars, and that the years when there has been peace are far outnumbered by the years during which there was war. According to the great publicist Bloch, who wrote on the "Future of War," during the 3,357 years from 1496 B. C. to 1861 A. D., there have been 3,130 years of war and 227 years of peace; 13 years of war to one of peace. This means that somewhere in the world there was war during these three and a third thousand years of history. It does not mean that every country on the average has had thirteen years of war to one year of peace. the 140 years of our own history we have had seventeen years of war and one hundred and twenty-three years of peace, the ratio being seven years of peace to one of war. But, in the history of all nations some time or other, sooner or later, war has disrupted human society.

In

War has been an inevitable thing; war was bound to come. It is natural for human beings to have differences of opinion, it is natural for nations to compete and have grievances. It is natural for nations to attempt conquests at the expense of weaker neighbors; it is natural for nations to wish to dominate a certain continent; indeed, the whole world. So long as that condition exists there will inevitably be war.

Thinkers of the past have not merely regarded war as inevitable, but have gone farther and have regarded it as a beneficial institution. It has been pointed out that many wars have been of enormous benefit to humanity. The successful Greek wars of the fifth century B. C. made it possible for the superior civilization of the Greeks to continue its development, and for its fruits to refresh mankind for all time. Rome's wars of conquest made it possible for her superior political and legal institutions to be introduced into the life of the Mediterranean peoples, and the political unity thus established made it possible for Christianity to be spread over the whole civilized world. The interstate and civil wars of Italy in Renaissance times developed a superior intellectual attitude designated by the term individualism. The French wars from 1792 to 1795 developed the French national spirit and national consciousness, which have yielded rich fruits in the national life of the French. These are merely typical statements of sober historians and other students of society. They are found in our text-books and treatises, and we are emphasizing them in connection with our work as history teach

ers.

War has also been lauded for its moral and other values. It is pointed out that war develops such

ATHINAU

Germany Since 1740

By GEORGE MADISON PRIEST
Princeton University

$1.25

For the student of current German history "Germany Since 1740" offers a background of singular fitness in explaining existing conditions. It describes political and social conditions in Germany early in the eighteenth century, the reigns of Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great and chronologically the disintegration of Germany as a federation of states, the uprising of the German people, the downfall of Napoleon at Leipsic and Waterloo, and succeeding events to the outbreak of the war in August, 1914.

The book is well provided with maps, a chronological table and suggestions for further reading in German history.

GINN AND COMPANY

"You may delay, but time will not."-Poor Richard's Almanack.

In Its Power

To Re-Create the Past

To Portray the Progress of
Human Life

To Give the Pupil an Accurate
Historical Perspective

Morey's Ancient Peoples
Has No Equal

It is scholarly, yet vital; simple in its style, yet accurate in its statements; interesting in its dramatic descriptions, yet not exaggerated.

For High Schools. 634 Pages, Profusely Illustrated.

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The History Teacher's
Teacher's Magazine

Published monthly, except July and August,
at 1619-1621 Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, Pa., by
MCKINLEY PUBLISHING CO.

EDITED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, composed of:

PROF. HENRY JOHNSON, Teachers' College, Columbia University, Chairman.

PROF. FRED. M. FLING, University of Nebraska.

MISS ANNA B. THOMPSON, Thayer Academy, South Braintree, Mass.

PROF. FREDERIC DUNCALF, University of Texas.
PROF. O. H. WILLIAMS, University of Indiana.
Dr. James SULLIVAN, Director of Archives and History, New
York State Department of Education.

ALBERT E. McKINLEY, Ph.D., Managing Editor

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, two dollars a year; single copies, twenty cents each.

REDUCED RATE of one dollar a year is granted to members of the American Historical Association, and to members of local and regional associations of history teachers. Such subscriptions must be sent direct to the publishers or through the secretaries of associations (but not through subscription agencies).

POSTAGE PREPAID in United States and Mexico; for Canada, twenty cents additional should be added to the subscription price, and for other foreign countries in the Postal Union, thirty cents additional. CHANGE OF ADDRESS. Both the old and the new address must be

given when a change of address is ordered. ADVERTISING RATES furnished upon application.

Volume VIII.
Number 2.

PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1917.

$2.00 a year. 20 cents a copy.

War and Peace in the Light of History

BY CARL CONRAD ECKHARDT, PH.D., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO.

When I was requested to bring a message that history teachers need just at this time, I did not take a long time to choose; I selected "War and Peace in the Light of History." What I shall say to you I have been saying to myself many a time in the last two years, when it seemed that the main interest in present-day history is centered in war and wholesale destruction by the most advanced nations of the Occident and Orient. So it seemed fitting to consider what part war and peace have played in history, what the attitude of mankind has been toward both, and what the efforts are that have been made to eliminate war and to establish permanent peace.

History is the account of man's progress in society. It deals with man's efforts to develop his material, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being. While making these efforts he has had great obstacles to overcome, the forces of nature and himself; and man has been far more successful in overcoming the physical and biological forces of nature than in conquering human nature. By mechanical and electrical inventions, man has made steam and electricity do most of his work; he has annihilated distance; he has learned to fly in the air, to make submarines, to send messages by wireless. The desert has been made to bloom; the waterfall has been made to supply power to the wheels of industry; the mines of the earth have been forced to yield up their treasures; the phonograph records for all time the tones of our greatest singers and musicians.

Through man's understanding of biology and biological laws he has learned to create new varieties of vegetation, better breeds of animals. He has enabled the toothless man to chew, the armless man to do many mechanical acts by means of artificial arms; the deaf are provided with a hearing apparatus. Through surgical operations man has learned to give life to the dying child, by transmitting the blood from the veins of a well person. Through vaccination and other preventive measures man has been made immune to typhoid, smallpox, diphtheria, colds, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, the black plague.

Man has conquered nature and is conquering disease, but he cannot conquer himself. Man is his own worst enemy. He is working on many social problems, and with marked success. He is trying to become master of himself in his social relations, but his success here is not as striking as in his conquest of nature. Man has as yet been unable to wrestle successfully with the problem of eliminating war, the most costly and destructive enemy of social progress that he has yet encountered.

In all recorded history we find that there have been intermittent wars, and that the years when there has been peace are far outnumbered by the years during which there was war. According to the great publicist Bloch, who wrote on the "Future of War," during the 3,357 years from 1496 B. C. to 1861 A. D., there have been 3,130 years of war and 227 years of peace; 13 years of war to one of peace. This means that somewhere in the world there was war during these three and a third thousand years of history. does not mean that every country on the average has had thirteen years of war to one year of peace. In the 140 years of our own history we have had seventeen years of war and one hundred and twenty-three years of peace, the ratio being seven years of peace to one of war. But, in the history of all nations some time or other, sooner or later, war has disrupted human society.

It

War has been an inevitable thing; war was bound to come. It is natural for human beings to have differences of opinion, it is natural for nations to compete and have grievances. It is natural for nations. to attempt conquests at the expense of weaker neighbors; it is natural for nations to wish to dominate a certain continent; indeed, the whole world. So long as that condition exists there will inevitably be war.

Thinkers of the past have not merely regarded war as inevitable, but have gone farther and have regarded it as a beneficial institution. It has been pointed out that many wars have been of enormous benefit to humanity. The successful Greek wars of the fifth century B. C. made it possible for the superior civilization of the Greeks to continue its development, and for its fruits to refresh mankind for all time. Rome's wars of conquest made it possible for her superior political and legal institutions to be introduced into the life of the Mediterranean peoples, and the political unity thus established made it possible for Christianity to be spread over the whole civilized world. The interstate and civil wars of Italy in Renaissance times developed a superior intellectual attitude designated by the term individualism. The French wars from 1792 to 1795 developed the French national spirit and national consciousness, which have yielded rich fruits in the national life of the French. These are merely typical statements of sober historians and other students of society. They are found in our text-books and treatises, and we are emphasizing them in connection with our work as history teach

ers.

War has also been lauded for its moral and other values. It is pointed out that war develops such

moral qualities as patriotism, courage, self-sacrifice, efficiency, devotion to a lofty ideal, consideration for the welfare of others, willingness and ability to dispense with luxury.

War makes for physical strength, the elimination of the unfit. It prevents moral degeneracy and national dependence on other nations. So humane a writer as Ruskin praises war as follows: "All the pure and noble arts of peace are founded on war. . . . There is no great art possible to a nation but that which is based on battle. . . . All great nations learned their truth of word and strength of thought in war; they were nourished in war and wasted in peace; taught by war and deceived by peace; trained by war and betrayed by peace." ("Crown of Wild Olive.")

Some writers in Germany, England, the United States, and elsewhere have regarded war as a divine institution. Moltke, in Germany; the Englishman, Colonel Maude; our own American admirals, Fiske and Luce, say that war is an ordinance of God. Theodore Roosevelt says, "We must play a great part in the world, and especially perform those deeds of blood and valor, which above everything else bring national renown.' ("Strenuous Life.")

Such, in brief, has been the place of war in history. It has been regarded as inevitable, inherently necessary, because of the pugnacious characteristics of men and society, a divine arrangement, which in spite of its horrors and destructiveness has produced such splendid moral and artistic results that it must be maintained.

But society has not been unanimous in regarding war as inevitable and beneficent. Ever since the remotest ages of recorded history there have been literary men, poets, philosophers, statesmen that have lauded peace and opposed war. There have been innumerable projects to make war impossible. Within the last twenty-five years peace societies have been organized in every country of the world, richly endowed organizations are conducting a propaganda against war and in favor of various methods to secure peace and make it enduring.

However ineffective this propaganda has been in securing its ultimate object, it can point with satisfaction to one glowing success, and that is that war is now no longer regarded by very many people as desirable. War is a thing to. be avoided; the divineness of war is no longer asserted. Few people emphasize war's development of manly qualities and other alleged benefits. No one justifies war because of the things accompanying it. The nation that brings on a war loses the moral respect of other nations, and one great party in this country is appealing to the nation for re-election because it kept the country out of war. Society is definitely facing the problem of war and its elimination. Never has so much attention been paid to this subject any time in history as now. Never before has there been such a sentiment in favor of peace, not merely temporary peace, but lasting peace, and enduring peace. Each of the belligerent nations of Europe openly proclaims that all it is fighting for is a permanent peace. Each has declared its willing

ness to fight on for years longer if only thereby permanent and general peace can be secured. In all neutral countries the press is filled with attacks on the system that has produced this great war, it is demanding that something be done to prevent another world calamity. Preachers, teachers, public speakers are all directing attention to this great problem. Never before has there been such a propaganda for peace and against war.

Let us consider the main remedies that are being proposed to abolish war and to establish permanent peace. First and foremost of the plans being advocated in the press and on the platforms of this nation is military preparedness. The essence of this remedy as expounded in this country is, that in order to prevent being attacked by a hostile power the United States must make its army and navy so strong that all other nations will fear to attack it. If we wish to insure ourselves against war we must be so fully prepared for war that no nation will think of affronting us or attacking us. This is apparently a splendid peace method. It is embodied in the platforms of both political parties; it has been advocated from pulpits, by woman's clubs, by the National Educational Association, by almost every congressman that wishes to be returned to office, by every business man that wants to retain the patronage of his customers. We have had a national hysteria of preparedness. We have been told that if only the European powers had prepared for war there would have been no war. England, Germany, France and Russia, instead of penuriously expending only one-third of their annual national income for their armies and navies, had spent two-thirds for military purposes, there would have been no war. If only their armies and navies had been prepared for war this great human calamity could not have occurred. And so the United States, in order to avoid such a calamity as has befallen Europe, appropriates the largest sum of money ever appropriated at any one time by any nation for military purposes. School boards are seriously considering the introduction of the cadet system into the high schools, and even into the grade schools, in order to prepare this nation for war as a peace-preserving measure—in which we are outdoing the European powers, for none of them have introduced military drill into their public schools.

If

With all due deference to the words of wisdom that have been uttered by our editors, preachers, National Education Association officers and others, I venture to say that our military preparedness program will be inadequate as a peace-preserving method. The unfortunate thing is that the munitions manufacturers, who have in this country had so much to do with frightening the American Congress and the American public into their preparedness hysteria, are doing the same thing in other countries. In every country there is a preparedness propaganda, and in every one of the great nations there has been an increased expenditure for armaments during the last fifteen years. The great trouble with the military preparedness argument is that it is such a good argument for any one

« ПретходнаНастави »