"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).