A Précis of Strategy
London, Hugh Rees, Ltd., 1910.
Octavo, 111, [1] (publisher's list) pages plus 15 maps and plans in an endpocket.
Cloth a little rubbed, bumped, marked and sunned; edges slightly foxed; rear hinge cracked but firm; endpapers a little marked; pencilled ownership signature (dated 22 May 1913) on the front pastedown, with pencilled emphases and occasional annotations throughout; two pinholes to the half-title and title leaves; endpocket with a short split along the closed leading edge; minor signs of age and use (including to the first map); overall, a very good copy.
The author was 'Late Professor, Indian Staff College'. Chapter 1 ('Nature of War'), written a few years before the outbreak of the First World War, was prescient, and there is something dishearteningly contemporary about it too: 'But no tribunal has as yet been universally recognized whose decisions all nations will obey; hence, in vital international relations, the struggle for existence is still carried on in its harshest form, and force, but little refined by social custom, determines the issue. In other words, war is still the decisive factor in international policy, which is really conducted under a continual, though more or less veiled threat of war. War has often resulted from some incident, such as an insult, real or fancied, to the national dignity, from religious persecution, or from anarchy in a neighbouring state. The ambition of a ruler, the interests of civilization, or even the desire to distract attention from domestic politics by foreign quarrels, have been responsible for war'.
Item #141870
Price (AUD):
$150.00