Last week found Europe's peasants repairing machines, mending carts, sharpening scythes. In southern France, Italy, Russia, a decisive harvest began. A peasant army hundreds of thousands strong, strung out on a vast peaceful front from Siberia through France, was advancing by successive mobilizations as yellowing grainfields quickly ripened northward. To war-anxious Europe this peaceful mobilization meant a kind of armistice. For while peasants in uniform fight Europe's wars, they could hardly be set to fighting until they had got in the grain. And since even modern mechanized armies still travel on...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
