“It is a great advantage to princes to have perused (military) histories in their youth, for in them they read at length of such assemblies and of the great frauds and deceptions and perjuries which some of the ancients have, practised on one another, and how they have taken and killed those who put their trust in such security. It is not to be said that all have used them, but the example of one is sufficient to make several wise and to cause them to wish to protect themselves.” For present-day democracies this advice of Philippe de Commynes, the fifteenth century French historian, has a pointed meaning. Only when the liberties of free peoples are threatened can their interest in war and armies be aroused. Tyrants and autocrats, on the other hand, never neglect the study of the role of war in statecraft. If we are to remain free the lessons of war must be studied continually. With this principle in mind the present survey of military literature is intended to suggest some of the important books that have been written since the French Revolution.

War has been such a shaping force in human history that no period has escaped its influence. This century seems especially cursed with the burden of two World Wars, not to mention the Russian and the German revolutions. To satisfy current interest in military affairs, armies, and the conduct of war, the following survey of military literature has been prepared. Books in English have been emphasized as much as possible though there is a more abundant literature in foreign languages. So vast is this literature that some limitations have been made necessary: the field of international law, the issue of disarmament, peace-making, and conquest have not been considered. Only incidental references have been made to the economics of war, which is a field embraced by the popular concept “Total War.” Except for a few books no attempt has been made to discuss the important problem of the relation of government and armies in peace and war. The sociology of war, a proper topic, cannot be treated in detail here: ample discussion of this subject will be found in the works of Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History (London, 1934 ff. 6 v.); Pitirim Sorokin, Social and Cultural Dynamics (New York, 1937, especially v. 3); Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Tübingen, 1925); and Werner Sombart, Der moderne Kapitalismus (Munich, 1921–1927, 3 v., 4th ed.).

When, At a party in New York, the question was asked: “What does the abbreviation ‘P. R.’ stand for?” a lady — a college graduate, from just across the Hudson River in New Jersey—answered: “A new alphabetic agency.” Harold Phelps Stokes, writing for the New York Times Book Review, thought that the two letters came close to expressing “a term of endearment.” The Baltimore Sun wrote in the same vein by terming it “the darling of the pure idealists of democracy.” The New York Sun was more explicit: “It is the pari-mutuel of politics, a bingo of the ballots, manna for the minorities.” And, to turn to a more serious aspect of the matter, a prominent American political scientist, in a letter to the present writer, called P. R. a “substitute religion,” and just one of the manifestations of that “mechanized dogmatism” for which he—as any true scientist— cared but little.

St. Thomas knew that the voices of human truth must be quiet before the tremendous and wonderful sound of THE WORD. For by THE WORD men can save their own words from vacancy and death, from becoming an affliction to their fellows, a bewilderment and an embarrassment, if not a ruin, to all who heed them or expect to be guided by them. Here I shall devote myself to the necessity of the wisdom of religious knowledge for modern writers and thinkers—to be considered specifically—and to its power especially among those who have clearly submitted their talent and intelligence to the service of The Word, the service of Christ the King.