Varieties of Military Experience:
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, William James,
and the Moral Equivalent of War
Terry Simmons, Ph.D.
Norwich, Vermont
July 5, 2006
Early in the last century, William James and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy wrote two
deceptively similar essays about war and warriors, and about community service.
examines the meanings and the uses of the moral equivalent of war.
This paper
Originally, I sought to
define better what a moral equivalent or substitute for military experience might be. However, I
found many intriguing aspects intertwined within an otherwise straightforward question. My
preliminary observations follow.
William James’s examination of the psychology of war, “The Moral Equivalent of War,”
is among of America’s most influential and well known political and social essays.
William
James was among the most prominent Nineteenth Century American intellectuals, a giant in the
disciplines of Psychology and Philosophy as well as a life long professor at Harvard University.
The Moral Equivalent of War was published in 1910, and widely disseminated, shortly before
James’s death.
The essay itself was the last in a series of political and scholarly statements on war and
peace. James’s ambitions to study and to write on the varieties of military experience are largely
unappreciated today. This project, begun about 1904, had the potential to match the scope of his
monumental scholarship on the Varieties of Religious Experience.
The Moral Equivalent of War was delivered as a speech for and published later by well
known peace organizations. However, James understood the price of war; his brother and many
others around him fought in the American Civil War, for instance. James honored warriors who
demonstrated courage and heroics, and desired to understand and to promote the character
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building attributes of military experience. The search for the moral equivalent of war was a
search for practical substitutes for war. Certainly, peace is preferable to war. But James was not
a combatant nor was he pacifist. The appeal and influence today of the essay itself relate most
often to pacifist sentiment implied in the title and in the subject matter. This, however, is a
misinterpretation of William James’s intent.
William James proposed voluntary work service as a substitute for military action or as a
means to maintain a sense of purpose during peace time. However, both work service during
peace time and actual combat develop camaraderie and encouraged character building. In this
regard, James character building proposal parallels Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s proposal to
improve young men’s experiences in pre-World War One Germany. He sought more meaningful
and relevant experiences for young soldiers in Germany’s compulsory, peace time army.
William James
William James (1842-1910) was first and foremost a Harvard scholar. He was educated
at Harvard University, and was a graduate of its medical school. He traveled to and was
educated in Europe as a youth and as a young man. Later, he would visit Europe regularly. For
example, James sent the philosopher, Henri Bergson, a copy of The Moral Equivalent of War
immediately after it was published, and discussed the essay and many other topics over lunch in
Paris shortly before James’s death. His first priority after his family was scholarly writing of
books and articles. In addition, James was a prolific letter writer, who corresponded with a wide
variety of well known intellectuals in North America and Europe. William James was part of a
large, prominent New York family. His brother was the novelist Henry James; their grandfather
was one of America’s wealthiest businessmen, who owned and managed extensive business
enterprises in Albany and Syracuse, for instance.
While William James spent time managing
family businesses and knew the value of a dollar, he was satisfied to lecture and write at Harvard
and to maintain his extensive scholarly and personal friendships.
Nevertheless, William James was active in political and civic affairs. He was a well
known orator, knew many well placed individuals, and enjoyed the prestige of his station in life.
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James was not a pacifist and had little patience for long speeches without action. James opposed
Grover Cleveland during the Venezuela Crisis of 1895. President Cleveland cited the Monroe
Doctrine and objected to British efforts during a dispute over the British Guiana border with
Venezuela. Later, during and after the Spanish American War, James opposed America’s largely
successful efforts to expand the United States’ foreign influence, and to acquire Puerto Rico,
Guam, and especially the Philippines. James spared often with his former student, Theodore
Roosevelt, Harvard College Class of 1880. (Young Roosevelt enrolled in James’s course in
comparative anatomy and physiology of vertebrates during Fall 1877.) In general, William
James was a well known liberal Democrat, who was not shy about giving speeches, writing
articles or writing letters to the editor, much in the manner of a John Kenneth Galbraith or a
Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
As such, James was in demand as an orator at various peace conventions and protests.
He was active in the Anti-Imperialist League, an organization that flourished at the end of the
Nineteenth Century and during the first decade of the Twentieth Century. The concept of antiimperialism related to specific foreign policies expanding United States foreign activities, to the
desire for the United States to show self-restraint, and to an implied isolationist tendency. (This
should not be confused with present day meanings of the term, imperialist.)
The Moral
Equivalent of War was issued first as a leaflet by the Association for International Conciliation, a
primary promoter of international arbitration and of peace negotiations. This organization later
merged with or became the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, headed by Nicolas
Murray Butler, also the President of Columbia University from 1901 to 1945. These activities
and interests led William James to think and to write about war and peace.
William James was a visiting professor of philosophy at Stanford University between
January and April 1906. The most likely specific origin of the essay, The Moral Equivalent of
War, was as a speech given at Stanford University on Washington’s Birthday, February 21,
1906. This speech entitled, “The Psychology of the War Spirit,” was delivered at an event held
in response to the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration’s call for colleges
throughout the country to devote the day to meetings focusing on peace.
It is reasonable
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speculation that a revised version of this speech evolved into The Moral Equivalent of War.
(Simon 1998: 335)
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888-1973) wrote “A Peace Within” as part of a seminar
during the winter of 1911-1912 at the University of Heidelberg, when he was at the end of his
student career and about to begin his teaching career as a beginning professor of law. At 23 or
24 years of age, Rosenstock-Huessy describes his own experience as a German officer or at
minimum, the experience of his age cohorts within the German armed forces. (It is not clear to
me whether he was or had been a young military officer himself when the essay was written.)
The essay was sent to the German government, although apparently no respond was made.
Shortly thereafter, of course, the essay and the government became obsolete.
Ironically, Rosenstock-Huessy’s ideas were quite similar in spirit to James’s non-military
recommendations. One essay was written within the quite specific context of the German
military conscription program, designed to improve and to inspire soldiers’ lives when war was
not being waged. The other was presented to the pacifists and peacemakers, although received
well by American soldiers also. Later, it fell to the German officer, veteran of Verdun, to
establish, experiment with, and to advocate reform of various voluntary and government work
service programs.
Rosenstock-Huessy’s proposal for more meaningful military service has been compared
with The Moral Equivalent of War, and in retrospect, was his first contribution in a long career
in adult education.
Rosenstock-Huessy wrote A Peace Within before James’s essay became
available in 1911, within an important collection of essays, Memories and Studies, edited by
William James’s son, Henry James III. Rosenstock-Huessy gave James full credit; he was called
“one of America’s greatest prophets,” in the 1934 essay, “The Army Enlisted Against Nature.”
These essays provide intellectual background and inspiration and are credited as precursors to
the Twentieth Century and current adult education literature on civic work service programs.
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[As an aside, the phrase “the army enlisted against nature” seems oddly out of place to
the contemporary ear. This phrase was used by William James throughout The Moral Equivalent
of War. William James hiked the hills with Ralph Waldo Emerson, and taught natural history to
Theodore Roosevelt. This army does not wage war against the natural world.
Indeed, the
“nature” about which James refers is the harmful and disorderly human environment to be
cleaned, repaired and rejuvenated. This army would be devoted to eliminating unsafe water
supplies and disease, and to improving sanitation systems.]
Following World War One, Rosenstock-Huessy was involved in a wide range of projects
devoted to the rejuvenation of a post-war Germany. In particular, he was a distinguished leader
in the German adult education movement from 1919 to 1933. He was instrumental in worker
education and in the development of youth work camps. And, he served as the Vice-Chairman of
the World Association for Adult Education from 1929 to 1933. Today, the best remembered
aspects of these activities involved the establishment of the volunteer work camps in Silesia from
1926. Meanwhile, Rosenstock-Huessy was concurrently a professor of law at the University of
Breslau. Thus, he was a scholar and author during his “day job” at the University of Breslau, at
the same time he was an adult education leader directly involved in the youth camps.
When Rosenstock-Huessy left Germany after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, he was invited
to teach at Harvard University. This invitation was arranged through personal contacts in adult
education, notwithstanding Rosenstock-Huessy’s extensive, more conventional scholarship and
teaching in Law, History, and Philosophy. Subsequently, Rosenstock-Huessy and his family
moved from Harvard University to Dartmouth College, of course. Thus, he and his family were
among the earliest and most fortunate political refugees from Nazi Germany.
Rosenstock-Huessy’s adult education leadership was subdued in the United States. He
was an advisor, a critic, and an author. Camp William James in 1940-1942 was the most explicit
tangible articulation of his work camp ideas in North America. However, with the exception of
his appointment, by President Franklin Roosevelt, as an advisor but not as an administrator, to
the Civilian Conservation Corps, Rosenstock-Huessy’s roles were at arms length. Even when his
own Dartmouth College students volunteered to be part of Camp William James, Rosenstock-
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Huessy wisely exercised his considerable leadership and authority through personal influence
instead of an authoritative chain of command. Today, the Civilian Conservation Corps and
Camp William James are cited as precursors to the Peace Corps and other work service
organizations, all inspired at minimum by William James’s essay title, The Moral Equivalent of
War.
William James and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
William James and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy have much in common, despite belonging
to different generations. Fundamentally, they were broadly based scholars who read, thought,
lectured, and wrote broadly. James spent most of his adult life on the Harvard University
campus.
Rosenstock-Huessy spent the majority of his adult years on German and American
university campuses, notwithstanding protests to the contrary. This is quite understandable.
The fundamental concepts suggested were conceived during peaceful years prior to
World War One. Of course, James died before the Great War; Rosenstock-Huessy did not die
during World War One and endured its implications. James’s essay, in particular, continues to
inspire persons coping still with the consequences of the global wars between 1914 and 1945.
If the two gentlemen were to meet after 1945, they would find more in common than not.
James would observe a world that had greatly blurred distinctions between civilian and
government combatants, and that had greatly expanded technological and environmental
consequences of war. James would be pleased to observe extended bibliographies devoted to the
psychology and the psychiatry of war; nevertheless, most research and clinical observations are
limited to tragic individuals with little attention to vital social interactions. Both gentlemen
would be intrigued by the uses of voluntary and government sponsored work camps and service
schemes, but frustrated by limited acceptance of these activities. The search for legitimate,
effective equivalents or substitutes for war continue.
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Bibliography
I.
Rosenstock-Huessy Bibliography
[Almost all citations are to Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, 2005, The Collected Works of Eugen
Rosenstock-Huessy. I suggest using the title search feature. Page numbers are those found
internally within this DVD collection. Many items would be difficult to find quickly and
efficiently in other formats. Caution: Rosenstock-Huessy and James both published widely.
Many works are published in multiple editions and/or in collections of essays, letters, lectures,
etc.]
Preiss, Jack, 1978, Camp William James, Norwich, Vt., Argo Books.
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen, 1912, “A Peace Within,” DVD.
1926, “Ein Landfrieden,” in Im Kampf um die Erwachsenenbildung1912 bis 1926, eds.
W. Picht and E. Rosenstock-Huessy, Leipzig, Quelle und Meyer.
1930, “The Social Function of Adult Education,” Bulletin of the World Association for
Adult Education, OS 44: 10-21.
1933 “Militia Academica,” DVD.
1934, “The Army Enlisted Against Nature,” Journal of Adult Education, 6:271-274.
1940, “Purpose of Camp William James,” DVD.
1942, “The Soul of William James,” DVD.
1944, “Demons of Peace or the Soul of War,” DVD.
1953, “The Homecoming of Society.” In Adult Education Towards Social and Political
Responsibility, ed. F.W. Jessup, Hamburg, UNESCO Institute for Education, pp. 76-83.
1955, “History Must Be Told, vol. 13, lecture 1, Dartmouth College, DVD.
1970, I Am an Impure Thinker, Norwich, Vt., Argo Books.
1978, Planetary Service, Norwich, Vt., Argo Books.
Simmons, Terry, 1986, “The Bridge Builder in Quest for Community,” Eugen RossenstockHuessy: Studies in His Life and Thought, edited by M. Darrol Bryant and Hans R. Huessy,
Lewiston/Queenston, The Edwin Mellen Press, pp. 131-140.
II.
James Bibliography
Barzun, Jacques, 1983, A Stroll With William James, New York, Harper & Row Publishers.
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James, William, 1911, Memories And Studies, London, Longmans, Green and Co.,
“On Some Mental Effects of the Earthquake,” pp. 209-226.
“Remarks at the Peace Banquet,” pp. 299-306.
“Robert Gould Shaw,” pp. 37-61.
“The Energies of Men,” pp. 229-264.
“The Moral Equivalent of War,” pp. 267-295,
[Footnote 1 at page 267:
“Written for and first published by the Association for
International Conciliation (Leaflet No. 27) and also published in McClure’s Magazine,
August 1910 and The Popular Science Monthly, October, 1910]
Menand, Louis, 2001, The Metaphysical Club, New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Myers, Gerald E., 1986, William James: His Life and Thought, New Haven, Yale University
Press.
Perry, Ralph Barton, 1935, The Thought and Character of William James, Boston, Little, Brown,
and Company, 2 volumes.
Perry, Ralph Barton, 1948, The Thought And Character of William James, Cambridge, Harvard
University Press.
Perry, Ralph Barton, 1958, In Praise of William James, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Simon, Linda, 1998 Genuine Reality: A Life of William James, New York, Harcourt Brace &
Company.
III.
Additional Works of Interest
Hanson, Victor Davis, 2003, Ripples of Battle: How wars of the past still determine how we
fight, how we live and how we think, New York, Doubleday.
Keegan, John, 1976, The Face of Battle, London, Jonathan Cape Ltd.
Morris, Edmond, 1979 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, New York, Coward, McCann &
Geoghegan.
Morris, Edmond, 2001, Theodore Rex, New York, Random House.
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