Prefaces to Peace: A Symposium Consisting of the Following: One World by Wendell L. Wilkie; The Problems of Lasting Peace by Herbert Hoover and Hugh Gibson; The Price of Free World Victory by Henry A. Wallace; Blue-Print for Peace by Sumner Welles [FIRST EDITION THUS] [VINTAGE 1943]

Fine unread condition maroon linen boards with gold spine lettering. Includes Introduction and The Atlantic Charter by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill dated August 14, 1941. All pages are in very fine unmarked condition and the spine/binding is in exceedingly tight and square unread condition (see photographs). "In 1917, the American people were unprepared for war. In 1918, the American people were unprepared for peace. They did understand that, if there were to be a good and lasting peace, they would have to carry on with their associate nations until some kind of international cooperation was put on a permanent basis. In 1918, they favored the League of Nations and their representatives were active in planning it. They did not understand that, if the peace were to be kept, they would have to step out of isolationism in peace as well as in war, and take some real responsibility for a world order. So, when the inevitable jealousies, fears, and greeds of a peace settlement began to show their ugly heads, they refused to join the League they had helped to make. It was a weak League to begin with, and, when the most powerful nation in the world turned its back and went home, it became too weak an agent to guarantee a durable peace, although it was successful, more successful than is generally recognized, in healing the wounds of war and promoting social, economic, and intellectual cooperation among the nations. But, politically, it became a weak congress, run by pressure groups representing the great European powers, unable to agree upon any action which could stop the slide of Europe toward another war. The American people were unprepared for war in 1939, and still unprepared for war in 1941. The American people must not be unprepared for peace with it comes. There have been sinister forces at work for the last twenty years, and before they can be checked, the Axis and Japan, which have become their armored divisions, must be unconditionally defeated. Why not then in this year of 1943 forget about peace and concentrate on winning the war! The answer has already been given. If no unity in peace aims is reached, we may begin to lose the war on the day we win it. That happened before. It must not happen again. This book, which is really an assemblage of books and important speeches, by men who have been, or are, or are likely to be in positions of great responsibility in the conduct of American foreign affairs, is an attempt to bring together what might be called blueprints for peace. Wendell Wilkie reports on a world transformed by rapid communication and economic interdependence, as he sees it after his now famous global trip. Sumner Welles, in a survey made from the heart of his important addresses, sets down simply and clearly the minumum essentials for a better world order and a safer and more prosperous America after the war. Vice President Wallace, follwing a somewhat different line, does the same in a series of statements which represent the essence of his ideas on what can be made to happen after the war. Ex-President Hoover, working with one of the albest and most far-sighted of our diplomats, Ex-Ambassador Hugh Gibson, makes a more detailed and elaborate study of principles, ways, and means, arranged like a textbook for easy and satisfactory study. Even those readers of this Prefaces to Peace who have been following the controversies in the magazines and the newspapers over what shall be done after the war, will find many surprises in the book." - excerpt from the Introduction by Henry Seidel Canby.…