Britain's semi-detached geographical position has helped to give it the world's strongest peace movement. Secure enough from invasions to be influenced by an idealistic approach to international relations, yet too close to the Continent for isolationism to be an option, the country has provided favourable conditions for those aspiring not merely to prevent war but to abolish it. The period from the Crimean War to World War II marked the British peace movement's age of maturity. In 1854, it was obliged for the first time to contest a decision — and moreover a highly popular one — to enter war. ... More

Britain's semi-detached geographical position has helped to give it the world's strongest peace movement. Secure enough from invasions to be influenced by an idealistic approach to international relations, yet too close to the Continent for isolationism to be an option, the country has provided favourable conditions for those aspiring not merely to prevent war but to abolish it. The period from the Crimean War to World War II marked the British peace movement's age of maturity. In 1854, it was obliged for the first time to contest a decision — and moreover a highly popular one — to enter war. It survived the resulting adversity, and gradually rebuilt its position as an accepted voice in public life, though by the end of the 19th century its leading associations such as the Peace Society were losing vitality as they gained respectability. Stimulated by the First World War into radicalizing and reconstructing itself through the formation of such associations as the Union of Democratic Control, the No-Conscription Fellowship, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the movement endured another period of unpopularity before enjoying unprecedented influence during the inter-war years, the era of the League of Nations Union, the Oxford Union's ‘King and country’ debate, the Peace Ballot, and the Peace Pledge Union. Finally, however, Adolf Hitler discredited much of the agenda it had been promoting the previous century or more. This book covers all significant peace associations and campaigns.