The true guardian Angell for Europe

QUESTION Was there a book published before World War I which argued a world war could never happen? IN 1909, British journalist Norman Angell published Europe’s Optical Illusion, later The Great Illusion, which sold more than two million copies in 25 languages and was so influential that his followers were described as being in a cult.

The great illusion was that nations gained by war. But in his book, Angell argued that the integration of the European economy would become so allembracing that war would be irrational.

Meanwhile, in Germany, former Prussian general Friedrich Adolf Julius von Bernhardi published the highly influential book Germany And The Next War, which put forward the case for the right and duty to make war, or a world power could face downfall.

It has been argued that the outbreak of World War I disproved Angell’s argument, but he had not maintained war was impossible, rather that it would be futile.

He argued that the only viable route to peace would be a world court in which issues would be dealt with rationally and peacefully. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1933. Angell, who had also been an MP for the British Labour Party at one point in his life, died in 1967 at the age of 94. Peter Smith, Durham. QUESTION What invention was so perfect that it has never been improved upon? FURTHER to the earlier answer, which suggested barbed wire and bubble wrap, I must argue the case for the Schrader valve.

Invented by August Schrader in 1891 for pneumatic tyres on bicycles and then cars, it is still in use today. Paul Watkin, Bungay, Suffolk.