Editing G. K. Chesterton (section)

===On War===
Chesterton first emerged as a journalist just after the turn of the 20th century. His great, and very lonely, opposition to the [[Second Boer War]], set him very much apart from most of the rest of the British press.  Chesterton was a [[Little Englander]], opposed to [[imperialism]], British or otherwise. Chesterton thought that Great Britain betrayed her own principles in the Boer Wars.

In vivid contrast to his opposition to the Boer Wars, Chesterton vigorously defended and encouraged the Allies in [[World War I]]. "The war was in Chesterton's eyes a crusade, and he was certain that England was right to fight as she had been wrong in fighting the Boers."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ffinch |first1=Michael |title=G.&nbsp;K. Chesterton: A Biography |date=1986 |publisher=Harper and Row |location=New York |isbn=0-06-252576-X |pages=228–29}}</ref> Chesterton saw the roots of the war in Prussian militarism. He was deeply disturbed by Prussia's unprovoked invasion and occupation of neutral Belgium and by [[Atrocity propaganda|reports of shocking atrocities]] the [[Imperial German Army]] was allegedly committing in Belgium. Over the course of the War, Chesterton wrote hundreds of essays defending it, attacking pacifism, and exhorting the public to persevere until victory. Some of these essays were collected in the 1916 work, ''The Barbarism of Berlin''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chesterton |first1=Gilbert Keith |title=The Barbarism of Berlin |date=1914 |publisher=Cassell and Company |location=London}}</ref>

One of Chesterton's most successful works in support of the War was his 1915 tongue-in-cheek ''The Crimes of England''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chesterton |first1=Gilbert Keith |title=The Crimes of England |date=1915 |publisher=C. Palmer & Hayward |location=London}}</ref>  The work is ironic, supposedly apologizing and trying to help a fictitious Prussian professor named Whirlwind make the case for Prussia in WWI, while actually attacking Prussia throughout. Part of the book's humorous impact is the conceit that Professor Whirlwind never realizes how his supposed benefactor is undermining Prussia at every turn. Chesterton "blames" England for historically building up Prussia against Austria, and for its pacifism, especially among wealthy British Quaker political donors, who prevented Britain from standing up to past Prussian aggression.