"Prophets" of the Great War: the modern warfare according to Jan Gotlib Bloch

The titles says “prophets” but as everybody can easily figure out it doesn't make much sense to use the category of "prophet" to write about the historians, philosophers or writers somehow able to predict what happened in Europe between 1914 and 1918. It’s not a matter of being like the Cumaean Sibyl or Nostradamus but it’s rather the result of a deep analysis made possible by the use of all the tools and the knowledge (and also the creativity of thoughts) that one has. Beside Friedrich Engels, whose predictions about a new annihilating global war are well known, there is also a Polish banker, particularly active in the construction and development of the modern Russian railways, who can be ascribed to the list of “prophets”. His name is Jan Gotlib Bloch (1836 – 1902). Strongly impressed by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 he is the author of La guerre future (Paris, 1898). His contributions to the study of the modern warfare and military thought is relevant in the analysis of what the Great War turned out. We would like to suggest this online resource, namely the book of his renown English book Is War Now Impossible? (London, 1899).