Adam Hochschild, whose To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, presents on campus Tuesday. His presentation consisted of many aspects relating to concientiouus objectors of the war.
Writing about a wide range of historical atrocities—from colonialism to Russian gulags to apartheid—is common practice for historian, journalist and author Adam Hochschild, who presented at UW.
His latest work, a book titled “To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion 1914-1918,” chronicles perspectives and punishments of conscientious objectors during World War I. His research into this brushed over chapter of history was the topic of his presentation at UW this week.
“My hope is that when we look back on this world war, during this 100 year anniversary period—and I’m sure you’ll hear a lot about this war in the three years of that left to come—my hope is that we’ll remember not just the politicians and not just the generals but those who tried to stop the war even though their efforts were in vain,” he said. “I still think we can be inspired by them and take their example to heart as we face our future.”
The Human Rights, Justice and Ethics Research Cluster of the Center for Global and Area Studies, a cross-discipline group of faculty and graduate students interested in researching human rights, put on the event.
“Turning things a little bit to make us think about things in a different way is something he does really well,” David Messenger, director of the Global and Area Studies Program, said. “To not simply dismiss conscientious objectors as a minority or small group of people, but realize that they also had arguments to contribute to the debates of the time.”
Hochschild said when the armies of Europe marched to war, both sides were so confident of an easy victory that many wore brightly colored uniforms. Sharing slides of red and blue army uniforms and silly hats, Hochschild received laughter from the audience. By the end the historian talked about the children drafted to war as the opposing alliances ran out of men, and the audience became somber.
The flow of the presentation paralleled that of the war, which was entered into on all sides with a “Victorian optimism” that failed to recognize just how disastrous it would become.
“People shared several illusions on both sides,” Hochschild said. “The first illusion was that victory was going to be quick and easy.”
At this point, he shared two pictures, one of a train of excited German soldiers with “To Paris!” written on the side, the other of a train of excited French soldiers with “To Berlin!” on its side.
Hochschild said that the imperial powers, used to crushing the technologically inferior armies of the African and Asian people they colonized, expected to face enemies unable to fight back.
“The second illusion I can only describe as the belief that once the war started, you would be shooting at the enemy, but they would not be shooting at you,” he said.
Hochschild asked the audience to remember the journalists, the philosophers, the women and the some six thousand objectors who were imprisoned in Britain and elsewhere who urged their contemporaries not to enter into what we now remember as one of the greatest human tragedies of modern times.
