EDITOR'S PREFACE 
In the autumn of 1914, when the scientific study of the effects 
of war upon modern life passed suddenly from theory to history, 
the Division of Economics and History of the Carnegie Endow- 
ment for International Peace proposed to adjust the programme 
of its researches to the new and altered problems which the War 
presented. The existing programme, which had been prepared 
as the result of a conference of economists held at Berne in 
1911, and which dealt with the facts then at hand, bad just 
begun to show the quality of its contributions; but for many 
reasons it could no longer be followed out. A plan was therefore 
drawn up at the request of the Director of the Division, in which 
it was proposed, by means of an historical survey, to attempt 
to measure the economic cost of the War and the displacement 
which it was causing in the processes of civilization. Such an 
‘ Economic and Social History of the World War’, it was felt, 
if undertaken by men of judicial temper and adequate training, 
might ultimately, by reason of its scientific obligations to truth, 
furnish data for the forming of sound public opinion, and thus 
contribute fundamentally toward the aims of an institution 
dedicated to the cause of international peace. 
The need for such an analysis, conceived and executed in the 
spirit of historical research, was increasingly obvious as the War 
developed, releasing complex forces of national life not only for 
the vast process of destruction but also for the stimulation of new 
capacities for production. This new economic activity, which 
under normal conditions of peace might have been a gain to 
society, and the surprising capacity exhibited by the belligerent 
nations for enduring long and increasing loss—often while pre- 
senting the outward semblance of new prosperity—made necessary 
a reconsideration of the whole field of war economics. A double