{"id":640,"date":"2026-07-17T06:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=640"},"modified":"2026-07-17T06:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:07:40","slug":"great-war-the-insane-and-familiar-war-madness-of-1914","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=640","title":{"rendered":"Great War: The Insane and Familiar \u2018War Madness\u2019 of 1914"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<div>\n<article>\n<header>\n<div>\n<ul><li>Books &amp; the Arts<\/li><li>July 28, 2014<\/li><\/ul><h1>Great War: The Insane and Familiar \u2018War Madness\u2019 of 1914<\/h1><h1>Great War: The Insane and Familiar \u2018War Madness\u2019 of 1914<\/h1><h2><p>&#8220;About nothing does the mob forget so quickly as about war.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<time>July 28, 2014<\/time>\n<div>\n<p>After noting the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and declaring that it was concern for the emperor which, as a consequence of the crime, \u201cfirst makes appeal,\u201d <em>The Nation<\/em> allowed several weeks to pass without comment about the political fallout of the deed. Lead editorials instead focused on the situations in Mexico, Haiti and Albania (ultimately connected to broader European conflict, but perhaps not obviously so just yet). With what now appears mordant irony, a scholar named H.W. Horwill\u2014later known for his <em>Dictionary of Modern American Usage<\/em>\u2014mused, in a laconic dispatch from London dated July 10, on the difficulties of prediction in politics. \u201cWars and rumors of wars,\u201d Horwill wrote, \u201cafford abundant opportunity for lucky and unlucky shots, metaphorically as well as literally.\u201d\t\t\t\t\n<p>By the issue dated July 30, however, prediction was no longer the name of the game, and <em>The Nation<\/em> could no longer ignore the conflict already threatening to tear Europe apart\u2014disturbingly suddenly, if along predictable seams.\n<p>On July 23 the Austrian ambassador to Serbia submitted the Dual Monarchy\u2019s ultimatum: Serbia must crack down on the nationalist networks responsible for the archduke\u2019s assassination, as well as allow an unprecedented level of meddling by Austria in Serbia\u2019s internal affairs. The terms were impossible for Serbia to accept, and were designed to be so; militaristic elements in the Austrian government had long desired a conflict with Serbia, and the primary proponent of peace in that government, the archduke, was now dead. Serbia rejected the ultimatum. Austria rejected British offers to negotiate a resolution and, on July 28, declared war.\n<p>\u201cA crisis of extreme gravity has developed in the European situation,\u201d the first sentence of <em>The Nation<\/em>\u2019s July 30 issue solemnly observed. A subsequent note picked up the thread:\n<p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-634\" height=\"330\" src=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/368b2f3fe255977050cd90777a63504b.jpg\" width=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/368b2f3fe255977050cd90777a63504b.jpg 378w, https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/368b2f3fe255977050cd90777a63504b-300x262.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 378px) 100vw, 378px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<p>A few pages later readers found the magazine\u2019s full editorial on the subject, written (without a byline, as most articles were then) by Rollo Ogden, the same editor of <em>The Nation<\/em>\u2019s then-parent publication, <em>The New York Evening-Post<\/em>, who had previously written about Franz Ferdinand\u2019s assassination. The editorial gives an incredible sense of Americans in July 1914 looking in horror at the precipitate escalation of tensions on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.\n<p>(Bishop Joseph Butler, for the record, was a widely read eighteenth-century English theologian and philosopher who influenced David Hume and Adam Smith. In a late essay, Matthew Arnold praised Butler\u2019s \u201csacred horror at men\u2019s frivolity.\u201d)\n<p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-635\" height=\"373\" src=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9972f95b3ba299908a92b7708d65aab3.jpg\" width=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9972f95b3ba299908a92b7708d65aab3.jpg 380w, https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9972f95b3ba299908a92b7708d65aab3-300x294.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-636\" height=\"120\" src=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/77f0f5d94d4355542aaed0f929468c35.jpg\" width=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/77f0f5d94d4355542aaed0f929468c35.jpg 383w, https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/77f0f5d94d4355542aaed0f929468c35-300x94.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 383px) 100vw, 383px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=630\">Root for Spain for Their Play and Their Politics<\/a><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=632\">America\u2019s Imperial Wars, Then and Now<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<footer>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\n                Submit a correction\n            \n<\/li>\n<li>\n\n                Send a letter to the editor\n            \n<\/li>\n<li>\n\n                Reprints &amp; permissions\n            \n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p><span> Richard Kreitner<svg>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>Richard Kreitner is a contributing writer and the author of <em>Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America\u2019s Imperfect Union<\/em>. His writings are at richardkreitner.com.<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=628\">A Modicum of Justice for Ronni Karpen Moffitt<\/a><\/p><br\/>\n<\/div>\n<input\/>\n<input\/>\n<\/footer>\n<\/article>\n\n\n\nAd Policy\n<!-- <a class=\"inifiniteLoader\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/new_infi_loader.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> -->\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Great War: The Insane and Familiar \u2018War Madness\u2019 of 1914 - 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