It is commonly assumed that the first wholesale abuse of Nietzsche's thought for the purposes of political propaganda took place in Nazi Germany and was aggravated by the response of Allied propagandists during the Second World War. In fact, as early as 1914 Nietzsche had provided a convenient lens through which warmongers, whether British or German, Austrian or Australian, were able to focus their hatreds and self-justifications. Given Nietzsche's contempt for virulent nationalism, particularly its German strain, and his comparative obscurity in Britain before 1914, this development requires some explanation.

The three principal aims here are to examine how his thought was presented by British commentators and propagandists at the beginning of the First World War; to explain how the singular view of Nietzsche that emerged was due not only to the demands of wartime propaganda but also to the malleability of Nietzsche's texts; and to counter the view that his impact on public opinion was negligible. It must be stressed that this discussion is not another attempt to absolve Nietzsche or to domesticate his thought. As will become clear, his ideas were exploited in a cavalier and highly selective fashion in 1914, but Nietzsche was not entirely blameless.