The War and the Intellectuals

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The American intellectuals seem to have forgotten that the real enemy is War rather than imperial Germany. –Randolph Bourne, in The War and the Intellectuals, 1917

The War and the Intellectuals (1917) was published in the early 20th-century literary magazine The Seven Arts, by Randolph Bourne. While World War I was raging in Europe, the American public discourse became more and more pro-war. Even many intellectuals, who initially rejected participation in the war, eventually supported American intervention. In this essay, Bourne, however, criticized his fellow intellectuals for supporting the war, and found that they were morally and intellectually wrong to do so.

Bourne’s work is as thought-provoking and relevant as ever for students of history, political scientists and others interested in the role of war for the modern state.