War
War names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
War a contest between nations and States (international war)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a contest between nations and States (international war), or between parties in the same state (civil war), carried on by force of arms, and resorted to either for purposes of advantage or of revenge. Formerly, war was waged at the will of despotic monarchs; now wars usually arise, in the first instance, from disputes concerning territorial possessions and frontiers, unjust dealings with the citizens of one state by another, questions of race and sentiment, jealousy of military prestige, or mere lust of conquest. Civil wars arise from the claims of rival competitors for the supreme power in a state, or for the establishment of some important point connected with civil or religious liberty. In all cases, the object of each contending party is to destroy the power of the other by defeating or dispersing ANTLERS OF WAPITI his army or navy, by the occupation of some important part of his country, such as the capital, or the principal administrative and commercial centers, or the ruin of his commerce, thus cutting off his sources of recuperation in men, money, and material. An international or public war can only be authorized by the sovereign power of the nations, and previous to the commencement of hostilities it is now usual for the state taking the initiative to issue declaration of war, which usually a takes the form of an explanatory manifesto addressed to the neutral states. An aggressive or offensive war is one carried into the territory of a hitherto friendly power; and a defensive war is one carried on to resist such aggresrights of sion. Certain laws, usages, or rig war are recognized by international law. By such laws it is allowable to seize and destroy the persons or property of armed enemies, to stop up all their channels of traffic or supply, and to appropriate everything in an enemy's country necessary for the support or Cyc 19 subsistence of the invading army. On the other hand, though an enemy may lawfully be starved into a surrender, wounding, except in battle, mutilation, and all cruel and wanton devastation, are contrary to the usages of war, as are also the bombarding of a defenseless town, firing on a hospital, the use of poison in any way, or torture to extort information from an enemy.
War PRISONERS OF
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
PRISONERS OF, in general persons captured from the enemy during military or naval operations. In former times the entire people of of a vanquished city, state, or nation became the absolute property of the victors; the men were either put to death or with the women and children became slaves. By later usage the combatants or fighting force are the ones commonly considered and treated as prisoners of war. The young, the sick, the aged; Sisters of Charity, physicians, nurses, and others regularly engaged in attending the sick and wounded; clergymen, representatives of the Red Cross and other recognized humane organizations; musicians with an army; and a variety of other people are considered noncombatants, and are exempted from the treatment accorded to captured combatants. The status of prisoners of war, as far as laws, rules, and customs go, is exceedingly complicated. Where it is desired to weaken an enemy by depriving it of its fighting material, a nation may hold its prisoners of war till after peace is declared. In such a case it will place them in more or less large bodies in or near cities where they can be kept under surveillance. During the time they are held they are entitled to food, medical attendance, and necessary clothing. As long as they do not disturb the quiet of the place or plot mutiny or resistance to their guard, they must be treated without violence or harshness.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that hostilities normally open with a formal "declaration of war" and that an enemy "may lawfully be starved into a surrender" though bombarding a defenceless town is forbidden. Both halves have since been overturned: the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 and the UN Charter of 1945 made aggressive war itself illegal, so states now fight without declaring — the United States has issued no declaration of war since 1942 — while the Second World War saw the deliberate bombing of cities on a scale the entry treats as unthinkable, ending with nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The tangled "laws, rules and customs" governing prisoners were codified in the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, which binds nearly every state and makes POW status a matter of treaty rather than usage; the 1977 Additional Protocols went further and prohibited starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, and since 2002 the International Criminal Court, added something the 1921 account has no place for: individual criminal liability for waging or conducting war unlawfully.
Written for this edition, 2026.