Preface - Book: Weapons of the War of Ideas 7

Part 1: Building a Warlike Nation
Chapter 1: Take Up Your Weapons 17
Chapter 2 Tactics 55
Chapter 3 From Uncle Tom's Cabin to Stalingrad: Why We Fight 85

Part 2: Mobilizing all your knowledge
Chapter 4 Science Exhibition 123
Chapter 5: Spies in Academia 140
Chapter 6: What the Map Tells Us 181

3rd rear
Chapter 7: The Engine of Victory, Published 213
Chapter 8: Reading During War 243
Chapter 9: Blacklists and Censorship 285

Part 4 Soldiers and Books
Chapter 10: Freedom, Competitive Economy, and Social Justice 319
Chapter 11: Freedom to Exploit 359
Chapter 12: The Great Escape 395

There is no place that a five-part bomber cannot penetrate.
Chapter 13: The Sanctuary 423
Chapter 14: Plunder 443
Chapter 15: Regeneration and Ashes 467

Chapter 6 1945–1989: The War of Peace
Chapter 16: Purification 495
Chapter 17 Compensation 515
Chapter 18: Gaining Popular Support 539

The Final Chapter - The End of History and the Never-Ending War 582

Acknowledgments 599
Translator's Note 603
Week 611
List of Plates 654
Search 659

“Books are essentially peaceful.
“I wanted to challenge the assumption that people are easily the tragic victims of war.”
A weapon of ideological war and a hotbed of ideology,
A report on military strategy and a tool of public censorship,
Military supplies that helped us survive the war and essential items for prisoner-of-war camps…

An unexpected account of a book that has been involved in the history of world wars in ways we never knew existed.

The Book at War by Andrew Pettegree, a historian at the University of St. Andrews in the UK, has been published as the 42nd book in the Philos series by Arte Publishing.
The author, a world-renowned authority in the fields of publishing and media culture, overturns the long-held notion that books are benevolent victims of war and bastions of civilization.
Books have served as a report on military strategy, a weapon of propaganda, and an essential military supply that supported soldiers and civilians, functioning as "active actors" in all areas of strategy, information, logistics, and psychological warfare.
"War and Books" reveals a new history of the complex collusion between war and books, through the paradox that books are both victims of war and the driving force behind its history.
***

In the history of books, war is always portrayed as a villain.
Barbarism that burns books, destroys knowledge, and destroys civilization.
We have represented books as symbols of intellect and peace, as benevolent victims of violence, as bastions of civilization that have survived the ravages of war.
But Andrew Petegri, a historian at the University of St Andrews in the UK, turns this long-held notion on its head in his new book, War and Books.
The book was not an innocent victim of war, but an 'active actor' who created and intervened in the war.


In the history of war, books have played a multifaceted role, crossing over the realms of strategy and information, propaganda and psychology, logistics and mass mobilization.
Atlases, scientific texts, military strategy books, and intelligence documents determined the course of battle, while government-issued reading materials fostered patriotism among soldiers and civilians and incited hatred of the enemy.
Especially in the 20th century, when the nature of war evolved into tactical warfare, information warfare, and scientific warfare, books became a key driving force of war.
Libraries served as key operational hubs and were “targets ripe for bombing,” while the publishing industry underpinned the national mobilization system.
It is no coincidence that countries with high literacy rates, active publishing, and well-equipped libraries were at the center of major wars in the 20th century.
The fact that Mao Zedong was a librarian in his youth, Stalin was a man of letters, and Hitler was an avid bibliophile is a symbolic aspect.

"War and Books" closely traces the history of books, which played a multifaceted role in all aspects of war.
Books as 'weapons of thought' that spread ideology (Part 1), books as 'military supplies' key to information warfare and strategic execution (Part 2), books as 'comfort goods' that supported the daily lives of citizens during wartime under censorship and control (Part 3), books as key 'supplies' that comforted soldiers on the front lines and in prisoner-of-war camps (Part 4), books as major 'targets of bombing and plunder' during wartime and simultaneously 'objects of protection' (Part 5), books as 'tools of the Cold War' that were rebuilt and controlled again amidst the ideological competition after the war (Part 6).
The narrative, spread over six parts, vividly reveals the three-dimensional, conspiratorial relationship between books and war.

Another distinguishing feature of War and Books is that it expands the scope of “books” to encompass the entirety of literary culture in order to reveal how books have permeated the deep structures of war.
Pettegri traces the diverse texts written and read during the exhibition, from personal records like a girl's diary to the pamphlets, magazines, leaflets and posters that were popular with the public at the time, to technical and scientific papers and classified military documents.
What he captures is a complex history of collusion, in which books and guns, intellect and violence, civilization and destruction operate intertwined within the structure of war.
Writing was both a weapon and an argument, an instrument of destruction and a means of preaching peace.

In this way, "War and Books" dispels the romantic myth that portrays books as benevolent victims, and forces us to examine the contradictions and duplicity of a literary culture that has colluded with violence.
At the same time, amidst all these contradictions, it reminds us once again that books have been the intellectual foundation that has supported human civilization.
This book, which weaves together the two grand themes of “war” and “books” with rich insight and elegant prose, is a masterpiece of modern humanities that sheds new light on the depths of literary culture.
This book includes approximately 90 illustrations of high historical value, including exhibition publications, propaganda materials, and archival photographs, adding visual experience and a sense of historical presence, providing another layer of reading enjoyment.

“Books are weapons in the war of ideas.”
A book that became the key to information warfare and ideological warfare
A source of weaponized ideas and knowledge

“The warring nations mobilized every kind of printed material: books, pamphlets, scientific periodicals, magazines, newspapers, leaflets, and large posters.
(...) the absence of print meant the collapse of power.
In April 1945, survivors of a devastated Berlin were confronted with two posters bearing the neatly handwritten names "Hitler" and "Goebbels."
The poster threatened punishment for disobeying orders, but no one was afraid.
“Handwritten posters, not printed on a printer, had no authority whatsoever and appeared pitiful and absurd.” - 『War and Books』, p. 11

Books were a powerful tool for spreading ideology, a prerequisite for total war.
As Hitler's Mein Kampf and Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" demonstrate, national leaders have used books to mobilize the thoughts and emotions of their citizens by manipulating patriotism and hostility.
At its core, there was one belief.
The belief that writing can determine the fate of a nation.
Attempts to weaponize ideas have evolved beyond the realm of propaganda into a new form of modern warfare.
Propaganda pamphlets, leaflets and magazines intended to boost soldiers' morale, rained down from the enemy's skies, literally becoming a powder keg of psychological warfare.

Moreover, the books on display were also the most crucial driving force in practically accumulating and developing technological and scientific knowledge.
Technical books, scientific papers, and manuals produced for purely practical purposes became the basis for the development of new weapons and training systems.
Each country mobilized scholars, librarians, and even spies to collect and decipher books containing enemy technology.
The author focuses particularly on World War II, vividly reconstructing how both the Allies and the Axis powers strategically used these printed materials to change the course of the war.

Above all, books played a crucial role in making military decisions and determining diplomatic directions.
Leaders of each country found in books the information they needed to successfully wage war.
For example, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was preparing for an operation to drive out the Germans who had occupied the Norwegian coast, he chose none other than a travel guide for tourists as his most important reference material.
This case demonstrates that, at a time when research on collecting and accumulating foreign geographic information for military purposes was lacking, books were not merely entertainment, but served as strategic and intellectual resources that actually turned the tide of war.
Books were the key tool that influenced each country's foreign policy and military operations.

“Supply books to the soldiers!”
A spiritual fortress and hope connecting the battlefield and the rear
The existence of "reading humans" that never disappeared even in the midst of war

On the battlefield, books were a shield that protected soldiers from anxiety and fear, and a source of comfort that helped them regain their humanity in despair.
"War and Books" recalls numerous accounts of soldiers holding books in their hands even in trenches where bullets were flying.
The books they read spanned a wide range of genres, from classics to provocative popular serials, adventure stories, and poetry collections.
Books allowed soldiers to forget the brutality and horror of the battlefield, even if only for a moment, and to recall their lives and memories before the war.
Books played an important role as a psychological defense shield as well as a physical shield against enemy guns and cannons.
Supplying books to the soldiers soon became an important task.

For civilians and prisoners of war in the rear, books and libraries were also a valuable refuge.
As bombings turned daily life into a shambles, books provided comfort and rest to those weary in body and mind, allowing us to preserve records of culture and civilization.
"War and Books" depicts in particular the reading scene in a prisoner-of-war camp.
Even under surveillance, prisoners continued to read and educate themselves, holding on to their own and others' crumbling dignity.
“Nowhere were books treated with more respect than in a prison camp.” (p. 429) Their reading was not mere entertainment, but the final act that sustained human existence.


Meanwhile, 『War and Books』 goes beyond books and printed matter and expands its research to include ‘writing’ itself.
It focuses on almost all literature related to the war, from personal records such as diaries to travel books and scientific papers.
This comprehensive approach demonstrates how profound and broad the reading of the exhibition was, encompassing soldiers and civilians, leaders and citizens.
It restores the power of the "reading human" that never extinguished even in times of violence and destruction, and vividly reminds readers of the true nature of human reading that blossomed steadfastly even in the midst of war.

Books have always been the first tool humans reach for when they want to start over.
The merciless bombing of the war on books and libraries
Nevertheless, the vitality of the rebuilt reading culture

“But the important thing is that, however merciless the war on books and libraries may have been, the development of printing technology has ensured that at every moment in history, books have been published on a far greater scale than have been destroyed.
This is something that has no origin in the economics of war.” - 『War and Books』, p. 596

"War and Books" provides a concrete estimate of the volumes lost from private libraries in Britain and Germany, vividly revealing the scale and reality of the cultural destruction wrought by the war, but it never stops at documenting the destruction.
As Franklin Roosevelt said, “You can’t destroy books with fire,” he expressed his firm belief that books will continue to be a vibrant medium.
Cheap, durable, and easily copied, books have sustained knowledge and culture even where other media have collapsed.
The history of books, which survived extreme oppression such as the burning of books and burying of scholars during the storms of World War II and were reborn as symbols of resistance, is itself a testament to the resilience of human civilization.

This resilience continues into the history of reconstruction after the war.
Beyond the dark history of plunder, destruction, and censorship, War and Books captures the moments when books were reborn as weapons for peace.
The efforts to restore collapsed libraries and publishing houses after the war and to revive knowledge and culture through large-scale reading campaigns demonstrate that books were not just mere records but also the foundation for rebuilding civilization.
Through its vivid history of restoration, "War and Books" reminds us that books were the only hope humanity could once again grasp in its darkest times.
In a world of militarized states and weaponized knowledge, nothing can be more comforting than this.