ABSTRACT
The First World War gave birth to the modern peace movement. Citizen movements for peace have historically arisen and expanded in reaction to the enormous human and physical destruction in large-scale hostilities; and not surprisingly the immense scope and mounting military casualties and prolonged suffering among civilian populations in the Great War prompted many people to question the efficacy of the war as a solution to the deep-seated national and ethnic tensions in Europe and to search for alternatives to the continued fighting. Some of the activists participating in the quest for neutral mediation of the conflict, particularly on the European side, had been involved in the prewar peace movement in criticizing imperialism and arms races, but they were increasingly joined by Americans, several of whom had expressed similar concerns before the Great War and, like their European colleagues, had also promoted more authoritative arbitration treaties and new international peacemaking institutions. The expanding intensity of the conflict moved the European and American advocates, however, into a sustained search for a negotiated end to the fighting and, identifying underlying causes of war, to develop prescriptive remedies for the postwar world. Large numbers of citizens with little or no experience in peacework joined this effort after 1914. In organizing themselves to promote their proposals, citizen activists made the peace cause a much more vibrant and visible presence than it ever had been.
