Written in the early months of the First World War, this is Russell's brilliant commentary on the barbarism of trench warfare, and his horror at the blind, patriotic enthusiasm of his contemporaries who sent a whole generation to their death. The reader sees the development of the style which was to serve Russell for fifty more years: his detailed examination of contemporary events, his provocative formulation of alternatives and his total fearlessness in debate in such adverse circumstances.Tragically we can also see how Russell was decades ahead of his time. It was for holding the views in this book, and acting on them, that he was fined, deprived of his university lectureship at Cambridge, and finally sent to prison.