IT was a world self-satisfied without contentment, a world in which material prosperity was no index to happiness. Mankind was drifting into jealous cliques, while every day their economic bonds became more subtly interlinked;* and, since this situation could not endure, it was certain that some form of unity, false or true, would soon be inevitable.
Such a unity might follow upon a new faith in the brotherhood of man, but, in the decadence of the great constructive ideals of politics and religion, it was hard to see how this faith could be born. Or it might come from the materialist reconstruction of life, of which communists dreamed, when men would be universally brigaded not by nations but by classes, and an international proletariat would call the tune. Or, lastly, it might arise if a single Power should establish a world-wide hegemony and impose its rule and its culture upon the subservient peoples.
This book is the record of a calamity which shattered the world's complacency and enabled men to look into their hearts. From the malaise I have described no nation was free, but it was fated that one strong Power should exhibit it in so monstrous a form that humanity shuddered and drew back from conclusions which all peoples had toyed with but only one had dared to accept.
* Buchan describes this jealousy in terms very similar to those employed by David Hume, in The Jealousy of Trade. As Hume explained, prosperity in other countries should please us: it means their peoples can be our customers and our friends, rather than our enemies or beggars reduced to pleading for aid.