Towards the Goal

Written in the midst of the Great War in 1917, Towards the Goal offers an electrifying inside account of Britain's total national mobilization. Mrs. Humphry Ward, one of England's most celebrated novelists, traveled to military outposts, naval installations, and munitions factories to document what she saw: the unprecedented industrial machinery of modern warfare, the training of soldiers, the expansion of the Royal Navy, and the emotional landscape of a nation transformed. Theodore Roosevelt introduces the volume with characteristic vigor, framing England's effort as an achievement without parallel. But the heart of the book lies in Ward's personal observations: the workers pouring into factories, the young men drilling in fields, the tension between grim resolve and quiet heroism. She wrote not merely to record but to build understanding across the Atlantic, convinced that Americans needed to grasp what Britain was enduring and why it mattered. The result is a document of historical urgency, capturing a moment when the war's outcome remained terrifyingly uncertain and every nation's sacrifice felt essential to the cause.