"The essay burst like a bombshell, not so much above his enemies as in [George Bernard] Shaw’s own life. Good friends broke with him; allies publicly condemned

"The essay burst like a bombshell, not so much above his enemies as in [George Bernard] Shaw’s own life. Good friends broke with him; allies publicly condemned him; he was pushed out of professional societies; bookstores and libraries removed his work from their shelves. When he wanted to publish a follow-up, The New Statesman refused." WWI was immensely popular in Britain, at least in the first years. "In August 1914, at the start of World War I, Admiral Charles Fitzgerald founded the Order of the White Feather with the support of the prominent author Mary Augusta Ward. The organisation aimed to shame men into enlisting in the British army by persuading women to present them with a white feather if they were not wearing a uniform." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_feather#World_War_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_feather#World_War_I)