The Myth of a Guilty Nation

“Of these injustices, the greatest, because it is the foundation for all the rest, is the imputation of Germany's sole responsibility for [World War 1]. The German people will never endure that imputation; they should never be expected to endure it. Nothing can really be settled until the question of responsibility is openly and candidly re-examined, and an understanding established that is based on facts instead of on official misrepresentation.” From The Myth of a Guilty Nation

Westerners are just now waking up to the extent of the war propaganda that brought about Allied involvement in the world wars. America, herself historically characterized by an ingrained hesitancy toward European involvement, became an engine of war propaganda seeking to veil the war objectives behind narratives of morality and justice. During World War I, Germany was cast as a rogue nation of wicked imperial ambitions, eager to destroy the Anglo-American out of its own unfounded military hubris.

But in this classic work (first published in 1922), the great dissident from American Progressivism, Albert Jay Nock, demonstrates "that the German Government was not solely guilty of bringing on the war." This point is important because "If the German Government may not be assumed to be solely responsible for the war, this treaty [Versailles] is indefensible; for it is constructed wholly upon that assumption."

This new Based Audio Books production is read by Thomas Achord, co-author of the vital work, Who Is My Neighbor: An Anthology in Natural Relations.

Albert Jay Nock (October 13, 1870–August 19, 1945) was an American author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and middle twentieth century.