Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for To End All Wars:
1. What is the irony inherent in the book's title. Why did Woodrow Wilson affix that epithet to World War I? What did he mean by it?
2. Why did many of the upper classes oppose the war, considering it unjust? Hochschild memorializes what he considers their courage. Do you consider them courageous...or disloyal or cowardly?
3. The Earl of Lansdowne's opposition to the war stemmed from differing concerns than those held by individuals like Fenner Brockway, Alice Wheeldon, and John S. Clarke. In what way was their underlying opposition different?
4. Talk about the class system in Britain and other countries of Europe? How did the onset of war delineate and exacerbate class divisiveness?
5. How does Hochschild portray the British generals who prosecuted the war? What was their attitude toward casualty numbers?
6. In what ways was the First World War different from all previous wars? Why was its destructive power so terrible—so "astonishingly lethal" in Hochschild's words?
7. What does Hochschild mean when he says that the war "forever shattered the self-assured, sunlit Europe." How was the world changed by the war—culturally, philosophically, as well as geopolitically?
8. How does Hochschild link the first with the second World War?
9. Hochschild indicates that American intervention actually helped to prolong the war and lead to a more vindictive armistice. Do you agree with his assessment?
10. Hochschild tells much of the history of the war through the side of the British and, especially, those who opposed the war. In doing so, he calls into question the meaning of "loyalty" and the conflicts that arise in defining which loyalty takes precedence. Where does one's true loyalty lie—with country, military duty, or family...or as Hochsfield puts it:
Was loyalty to one’s country in wartime the ultimate civic duty, or were there ideals that had a higher claim?”
Where do you think loyalty lies? Where would your loyalty be?
11. How does Hochschild portray Bertrand Russell? Do you agree with his portrait of Russell? What does Russell mean when he claims in 1914 that he was "tortured by patriotism"?
12. Talk about the role of propaganda in the war effort. How do our attempts to build support for a war today compare with the techniques used during World War I?
13. Lord Lansdowne published a paper in which he pointed out that the war led to "the prostitution of science for the purposes of pure destruction." Was he right? Historically, science has always been put to use in wartime in order to gain defensive as well as offensive advantage? What then is the proper use of science?
14. What have you learned about World War I from reading Hochschild's book? Have your views of war, the conduct of war, patriotism, or heroism been confirmed...or altered in any way?
15. Does this work have relevance to the 21st century? Are there lessons we can gain from reading Hochschild's account of a war that took place a century ago?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)