Modern total war calls for the regimentation and coordination of people and resources. The state is compelled to demand a surrender of private rights in order that unity of purpose may enable it to prosecute the war to a victorious conclusion. Wars are waged not only against a nation's government and armed forces but also against a nation's economic means of existence and its civilian population in order to destroy the means and will to continue the struggle.

World War One is regarded as a `total war' with both sides engaging all resources- economical, political, social, military and human capital, on a scale never seen before. Total War meant the transformation of millions of civilians into soldiers, millions of housewives into industrial workers, millions of children into part-time labourers and messengers. Neither art nor religion, neither industry nor science was exempt from the imprint of "the...