Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Italian writers on war and militarism
Vittorio Alfieri: The infamous trade of soldier, the sole basis of all arbitrary authority
Vittorio Alfieri: Thousands immolated on the altar of despotism, slaves born but to fertilize the soil
Giuseppe Berto: Selections on war
Giuseppe Berto: Bombing produced cities of the dead
Giuseppe Berto: A fable: The war was going well, the war was going badly
Giuseppe Berto: It was a good night for an air raid. Somewhere or other there would be terror and death and destruction.
Giuseppe Berto: No one truly survives war
Giuseppe Berto: One of the fruits of war, that people should feel so alone and desolate
Giuseppe Berto: Orphaned by the bombs
Giuseppe Berto: The sound of the bombs whistling, the sounds of human suffering, the groans, the screams, the agonized appeals
Giuseppe Berto: Stop destroying so many good things that existed on earth simply in order to slaughter each other
Giuseppe Berto: Then the war passed over our countryside
Giuseppe Berto: A universal evil has given them the power to kill unknown people, people very like themselves
Giuseppe Berto: War destroys the soul even when it spares the body
Eugenio Montale: Poetry in an era of nuclear weapons and Doomsday atmosphere
Alberto Moravia: Selections on war
Alberto Moravia: “Ah well, war is war, you know”
Alberto Moravia: Even in uniform and with a chest covered with medals, always a thief and a murderer
Alberto Moravia: That is what war is like, the war is everywhere
Alberto Moravia: Torn colored posters inciting people to war
Alberto Moravia: War destroys all things seen and unseen
Alberto Moravia: War survives in our souls long after it is over
Cesare Pavese: Every war is a civil war
Cesare Pavese: A moment of peace, to be reborn into a bloodless world
Petrarch: Wealth and power at a bloody rate is wicked, better bread and water eat with peace
Salvatore Quasimodo: In every country a cultural tradition opposes war
Ignazio Silone: Resorting to the bloody diversion of war
Ignazio Silone: They have been warned of wars and rumors of wars
Ignazio Silone: War with today’s hereditary enemy
Giovanni Verga: The Mother of Sorrows
Elio Vittorini: Dialogue between a dead soldier and his brother
Elio Vittorini: Slaughter perpetrated in the world; one man cries and another laughs
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