Why War? Debating Pacifism during the Spanish Civil War: Herbert Read, John Middleton Murry and the ‘Necessity’ of Anarchism

Authors

  • Mark Antliff

Abstract

Mark Antliff unearths and analyzes the ideological and personal exchanges between Herbert Read (1893–1968) and John Middleton Murry (1889–1957) before and during World War Two (1939-45), situating their debates within the broader development of pacifism and anarchism in Britain. Antliff argues that their debates over means, ends, and the ethics of violence prefigured postwar shifts toward prefigurative, nonviolent resistance within both anarchist and pacifist movements.

Author Biography

Mark Antliff

Mark Antliff is Mary Grace Wilson Distinguished Professor, Emeritus in the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke University. His publications include Inventing Bergson: Cultural Politics and the Parisian Avant-Garde (1993); Cubism and Culture (co-authored with Patricia Leighten) (2001); Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art and Culture in France (2007); and Sculptors Against the State: Anarchism and the Anglo-European Avant-Garde (2021) which was a Finalist in 2024 for the Laura Shannon Prize, sponsored by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. A collection of his writings, The Aesthetics of Anarchist Activism: Essays on Resistance to the State, Power, and Fascism, will soon appear in Russian translation with the dissident Égalité Press. His current research focuses on radical pacifism and aesthetics in Britain and Europe from the period of escalating political crises during the 1930’s to the catastrophic aftermath of World War Two.

Journal cover image in sepia of a World War One era soldier breaking a rifle in half

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Published

2025-11-18

Issue

Vol. 2025 No. 2 (2025): Anarchism and Peace History

Section

Articles

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