Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 1874–1936
9,193 words
NOTE: This 14 June marks the 90th anniversary of the death of the great Anglo-Catholic conservative writer G. K. Chesterton in 1936. The following essay has been written for planned inclusion in a future as-yet untitled academic anthology of pieces on the subject of Chesterton and war, and deals with the subject of the main motivation GKC thought all true soldiers should have for fighting in the first place—love of one’s own homeland and people.
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
G. K. Chesterton
“Patriotism is just saying your country is the best because you happen to have been born there.”
G.B. Shaw
G. K. Chesterton is far better appreciated today as an essayist than as a novelist, but his first effort in this particular literary medium, 1904’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill, was really little more than an essay reshaped into basic narrative form.
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