If the War Goes On . . .

A collection of essays on the absurdity of war, from the Nobel Prize laureate.

Herman Hesse remained clear-sighted and consistent in his political views and his passionate espousal of pacifism and the bloody absurdity of war from the start of the First World War to the end of his life. He wrote the earliest essay in this book in September 1914, before he cemented his fame with the novels Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, and continued writing a stream of letters, essays and pamphlets throughout the war. In his native Germany his views earned him the labels 'traitor' and 'viper', but after World War II he was moved to reiterate his beliefs in another series of essays and letters.

If the War Goes On ... resonates as strongly today as it did when originally published and begs the question: have our politicians learnt nothing in the last seventy years?

About the Author

Herman Hesse was one of the greatest literary figures of the German-speaking world. His deep humanity and searching philosophy were developed in such masterly works as Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and Narcissus and Goldmund, which together with his poems and a number of critical works (including If the War Goes On...) won him a leading place among contemporary thinkers. In 1946 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1962 shortly after his eighty-fifth birthday.