ABSTRACT
Norman Angell's career as a writer on international affairs began with his association with the Irish newspaper magnate Alfred Harmsworth. Angell's concept of the public mind is arguably his most important contribution to the study of peace. Angell covers the period leading up to First World War, and centres on his seminal work The Great Illusion, published as a pamphlet in 1909. Cornelia Navari's 1989 article in International Studies gave a balanced and fair view of Angell's classic The Great Illusion, while in 1991 Jaap de Wilde christened Angell the ancestor of interdependence theory. Central to the argument of The Great Illusion was a theory of human historical development in which the passions that led to violence are overcome by the rational realisation of the advantages of cooperative effort. Angell entered Parliament sincerely believing that James Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party was the best vehicle for his ideas, particularly given MacDonald's ideological support for Angell's ideas about war and international organisation.
