Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War

662 Pages·2012·3.7 MB·English

by  Nicholas A. Lambert

planning armageddon

Planning Armageddon
British Economic Warfare
and the First World War
Nicholas A. Lambert
harvard university press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, En gland • 2012
Copyright © 2012 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Lambert, Nicholas A., 1967–
Planning Armageddon : British economic warfare and the First World War /
Nicholas A. Lambert.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 06149- 1 (alk. paper)
1. World War, 1914– 1918—Economic aspects— Great Britain.
2. Sea power— Economic aspects— Great Britain. 3. Great Britain—
Economic policy— 20th century. 4. Great Britain— Military policy.
I. Title.
HC260.D4L36 2011
940.3'1—dc22 2011006802
For K.K. with love.

Contents
Introduction 1
Th e Pre- War, 1901– 1914
1 Th e Emergence of Economic Warfare 19
2 Th e Envisioning of Economic Warfare 61
3 Th e Exposition of Economic Warfare 102
4 Th e Endorsement of Economic Warfare 138
Th e Short War, 1914– 1915
5 “Incidentally, Armageddon Begins” 185
6 Th e Problem with Americans 232
7 Admiralty Infi ghting 279
Th e Long War, 1915– 1916
8 Vigorous Indecision 325
9 A Management Problem 371
10 Th e Summer of Discontent 409
11 Th e End of the Beginning 451
Conclusions 497
viii Contents
Abbreviations 507
Notes 509
Primary Sources 639
Ac know ledg ments 643
Index 645