Reviewing William James's Memories and Studies in 1911, Russell declares that ‘The most delightful part of the book consists of an essay and a speech on war – especially the speech, called “Remarks at the Peace Banquet”.’ As James's address was deliberately provocative, designed to unsettle precisely those Liberal assumptions concerning the aetiology of wars which had formed the basis of Russell's own thinking since 1901, it is to be supposed that what occasioned his delight was more a matter of context than content. The gathering of pacifists was informed by James of both the nature of war and the social benefits it conferred; aside from being ‘the final bouquet of life's fireworks’, ‘human nature at its uppermost’, ‘a sacrament’, war was also a necessity, for ‘Society would rot without the mystical blood-payment.’ That Russell chose to be amused by the audacity, rather than dismayed by the celebration of these values, is perhaps an indication of personal affection, for James had only recently died.

This exposure to James's ideas is interesting because it suggests that the enthusiasm of the London crowds in August 1914 should have caused Russell less astonishment than it did: ‘I discovered to my amazement that average men and women were delighted at the prospect of war. I had fondly imagined, what most pacifists contended, that wars were forced upon a reluctant population by despotic and Machiavellian governments.’