Lay Down Your Arms

This fictional autobiography concerns a female activist for peace and human rights; through the form of biography, peace activist Bertha von Suttner passionately advances her lifelong beliefs and passions. In using the name Martha von Tilling, Bertha von Suttner sought to widen the scope of the antiwar message while drawing a clear parallel to her life's work. By placing Martha at the forefront of the horrors of war and the destruction and terror that it brings, we are offered the raw and horrific truths of conflict. This book thus contains both the academic arguments in favor of pacifism and an abandonment of conflict as being a way forward for humanity, plus a horrific evocation of a visceral war and the bloody aftermath of battle. For years, Bertha von Suttner was at the forefront of campaigning for peace in Europe, meeting with government officials and speaking at prominent events. An adept orator, political journalist and organizer, it was by von Suttner's initiative that the concept of the Peace Conference was brought into being. Martha's final years were hectic and stressful - the governments of Europe were building enormous quantities of weapons and warships. Her difficulties were compounded by a diagnosis of cancer, from which she died in 1914, mere months before the outbreak of World War One.