Content warning: Contains graphic historical photographs of wartime injuries, death, and human remains. Most images are not shown due to their nature.
Archive Notes
Abridged Anti-War Photographic Book by Frederick A. Barber The Horror of It was assembled as a direct challenge to romantic ideas about warfare. Instead of generals, victories, and patriotic spectacle, its pages focus on the physical consequences left behind: battlefield graves, injured soldiers, ruined bodies, and the anonymous dead.
The book belongs to a wave of interwar anti-war publishing that used documentary photography to strip warfare of ceremony and heroism. Its closing pages advertise organizations including the League of Nations Association, the War Resisters’ League, World Peaceways, and other pacifist movements active during the period. The New Yorker described it as a collection deliberately intended to reveal the unimaginable reality of modern warfare.
This copy carries moderate age and use; edge loss, surface scratches, corner wear, discoloration, and rubbing along the spine. The interior pages show normal age toning, handling wear, and occasional creasing.
Details
Title:The Horror of It: Camera Records of War’s Gruesome Glories
Arranged by: Frederick A. Barber
Publisher: Historical Foundations, New York
Date: Circa 1933
Format: Illustrated softcover / printed paper wraps
Subject: World War I photography, anti-war literature, pacifism, military medicine, social history
Condition: Used vintage condition. Moderate rubbing, discoloration, scratches, creasing, edge and corner loss. Binding appears fragile, with visible wear and possible partial separation. Interior pages show toning, creasing, handling wear, and age-related imperfections. Please review all photographs carefully.
