A Traveller In War Time [Paperback]

Winston Churchill (Author), 1stWorld Library (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. 1st World Library-Literary Society is a non-profit educational organization. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - I am reprinting here, in response to requests, certain recent experiences in Great Britain and France. These were selected in the hope of conveying to American readers some idea of the atmosphere, of "what it is like" in these countries under the immediate shadow of the battle clouds. It was what I myself most wished to know. My idea was first to send home my impressions while they were fresh, and to refrain as far as possible from comment and judgment until I should have had time to make a fuller survey. Hence I chose as a title for these articles, - intended to be preliminary," A Traveller in War-Time." I tried to banish from my mind all previous impressions gained from reading. I wished to be free for the moment to accept and record the chance invitation or adventure, wherever met with, at the Front, in the streets of Paris, in Ireland, or on the London omnibus. Later on, I hoped to write a book summarizing the changing social conditions as I had found them. Unfortunately for me, my stay was unexpectedly cut short. I was able to avail myself of but few of the many opportunities offered. With this apology, the articles are presented as they were written.

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159540130X
• ISBN-13: 978-1595401304
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,316,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The value of war, December 19, 2010

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Paul J. Leach - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Traveller in War-Time (Kindle Edition)

The author is the well-known (in his time) American novelist, not the English politician. The book is a short (about 70-80 pages) report on his brief visit to Britain and France shortly after the U.S. entered WWI but before American troops were fully engaged. The idea was to give the American public an impression of what it was like "over there".

While giving war's calamities their due, he nonetheless projects considered approval of the war, if it had to happen, as a progressive force -- for democracy, egalitarianism, and women's emancipation -- and as one for self-realization: giving people a purpose to their lives. War is even a force for environmentalism: there is an admiring sketch of a recycling (then called "reclamation") plant in the war zone.

There is no clear organizing principle, not even a chronological one; it just jumps from one vignette to the next.

Note that there are some quotations missing from the text of the free version (but, oddly enough, not in the Kindle version at Project Gutenberg).