Caroline Playne

Overview

Caroline Playne born Avening, Gloucestershire, England May 4, 1857 (d. 1948). Historian of war and peace. Anticipating WWI, co-founded National Peace Council, 1904. Authored paper “The Evolution of International Peace”, contrasting internationalism of Tolstoy, etc. with contemporary Social Darwinism. Attended International Peace Council, London, 1908. Opposed WWI, working with Relief of Distressed Enemy Aliens, Union for Democratic Control, Nailsworth Peace Association and National Peace Council. Banned from Hague Women's Peace Congress, 1915. After the war she published four books on the neurosis of war; also wrote biography of first woman Nobel Peace laureate, Bertha von Suttner.

Quotations

On the British rush to war: “And they felt, in their hearts, intense relief that there was to be no more negotiating, no more thinking, no more heeding, only rushing on, on, gloriously, splendidly on, all traces kicked over, all bridles thrown away!” (photo Senate House Library)