I. The 'Impossibility of War' Myth. II. 'Economic' and 'Moral' Motives in International Affairs. III. The 'Great Illusion' Argument. IV. Arguments now out of date. V. The Argument as an attack on the State. VI. Vindication by Events. VII. Could the War have been prevented? SYNOPSIS CHAPTER I (pp. 3-60) OUR DAILY BREAD An examination of the present conditions in Europe shows that much of its dense population (particularly that of these islands) cannot live at a standard necessary for civilisation (leisure, social peace, individual freedom) except by certain co-operative processes which must be carried on largely across frontiers. (The prosperity of Britain depends on the production by foreigners of a surplus of food and raw material above their own needs.) The present distress is not mainly the result of the physical destruction of war (famine or shortage is worst, as in the Austrian and German and Russian areas, where there has been no destruction). The Continent as a whole has the same soil and natural resources and technical knowledge as when it fed its populations. The causes of its present failure at self-support are moral: economic paralysis following political disintegration, 'Balkanisation'; that, in its turn, due to certain passions and prepossessions. A corresponding phenomenon is revealed within each national society: a decline of production due to certain moral disorders, mainly in the political field; to 'unrest,' a greater cleavage between groups, rendering the indispensable co-operation less effective.