To End All Wars
A history of the war in Britain told through both those who fought it and those who refused to.
The Verdict
Adam Hochschild tells Britain's war as a story with two sides at home: those who fought and those who refused. Alongside the familiar catastrophe of the Western Front he follows the war's resisters — conscientious objectors jailed for their beliefs, socialists and suffragists who split families and movements over whether to back the slaughter. By braiding the trenches with the dissent, he turns a military history into a moral one, asking what loyalty is worth when the cause is a charnel house. Humane, angry, and beautifully told.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The war and the people who resisted it
- Conscience and dissent on the home front
- The moral cost of total war
- Hochschild's narrative skill, as in King Leopold's Ghost
Look elsewhere if you want
- A purely military history
- The war beyond Britain
- The fighting without the dissent
Why We Rated It 4.4
Historical Context
To End All Wars (2011) tells the story of Britain in the First World War through both its soldiers and its opponents — conscientious objectors, socialists, and suffragists, many of them linked by family or friendship. Hochschild is also the author of King Leopold's Ghost.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0547750316
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- What makes To End All Wars different?
- It pairs the military history of Britain's war with the story of those who resisted it, treating dissent as central rather than marginal.
- Is it only about Britain?
- Yes — it focuses on Britain, using the divide between supporters and resisters of the war as its through-line.