War, Peace and Revolution: International Socialism at the Crossroads, 1914-1918

A somewhat crammed analysis of international socialism, so confident before World War I, so shaken by it, so divided by Lenin's revolution in the most backward country of Europe. Kirby is less censorious of wartime socialists than most recent historians have been. Drawing on a vast monographic literature and some new material, he tries to discuss all factions of socialists in belligerent and neutral countries-and in the process sometimes loses his narrative in episodic detail. Kirby's comprehensive work recalls Merle Fainsod's pioneering study of the same subject, written over half a century ago.