THE BOOK AT WAR

How printed matter has shaped the course of war throughout history.

British historian Pettegree offers a wide-ranging investigation of the role of books in warfare, considering ways that “print in all its manifestations” has inspired patriotism and justified conflict, contributed to the information and skills needed for waging war, supported civilians on the home front, and kept up the morale of troops. Drawing on published and archival material, including letters and diaries, Pettegree closely examines several treatises specifically addressed to warfare: Sun Tzu’s ancient classic The Art of War; Machiavelli’s The Art of War, from 1521; and Carl von Clausewitz’s On War, published in 1832. While these books focused on military strategy, other publications set the stage for justification: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, for example, proved influential in shaping Union support for the Civil War. In late-19th-century Britain, articles in magazines addressed to young men, such as The Boy’s Own Paper, nurtured a martial spirit. Pettegree discusses books that disseminated “poisonous ideologies,” as well as nations’ efforts to censor and control public access. Nazis, as is well known, burned books by Jews and others they considered undesirable. During World War I, pro-German books were cleared from U.S. libraries. In contrast, much effort has been devoted to finding safe havens for books vulnerable to bombings. The “books for Sammies” campaign distributed books to fighting men in WWI. During World War II, library associations and publishers—notably Penguin, in the U.K.—provided mountains of books for soldiers, none more so than the Armed Services Editions, which shipped 122 million copies of more than 1,300 titles to soldiers around the world. As in his recent history The Library, Pettegree makes a solid case for the endurance of books in daily life and during conflicts, “notwithstanding the domination of new technologies of war-making and information gathering.”

A richly detailed cultural history.