They were real conservatives. They worried that our republican form of government was at grave risk if America joined the first world war over there. Michael Kazin’s timely new book is “War Against War: The American Fight for Peace 1914-1918.” In its pages we find the birth of perpetual war, the current surveillance state, the seeds of the civil rights movement, Prussian-style militarism replacing good old democracy and free thinking, and even a super rich man believing he could shape the world as he wanted. It’s about long forgotten heroes like Jane Addams, Morris Hillquit, Claude Kitchin, Crystal and Max Eastman, and of course Fighting Bob LaFollette. If you care about militarism, democracy, and America’s current role in the world, you might want to read this book.