England's Holy War. A Study of English Liberal Idealism During the Great War

England’s Holy War tells the story of the compromises of conscience and self-fuelled illusions by British Liberal opinion as it was reflected in the newspapers that represented it during the First World War, in particular the Daily News and the Manchester Guardian, and is a first rate contribution to the problem of consent to the Great War, the immense and generalized consent that for various reasons the politically literate population of the whole of Europe gave their country’s participation in the war. The discussion vividly reveals the state of consciousness, throughout the war, of the Liberal half of England forced to comply with a war that contradicted all the principles for which it had committed itself until on the day of England’s involvement. In this context, on August 3, 1914, the Liberal press was still looking for the coherence of things within the framework of its vision: the German invasion of Luxembourg was an understandable tactical move given the threat impending on Germany from East and West, on which the Manchester Guardian wrote “we deeply regret it but we understand” (p. 58). On August 6, after the war was declared, the Manchester Guardian repeated again that…

Издательство

GogLiB

Год

2020

Страниц

473

Язык

английский

ISBN

9788897527503