This collection of essays by the celebrated English writer Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) includes short analytical texts written in the same rich, artistic language as her longer prose. Some works were conceived as brutal social polemics, while others resemble literary essays, sample modernist novels, or psychological studies. In each essay in this collection, Woolf demonstrates herself as a sensitive recorder of modernity, creating instantaneous texts, elusive sketches, paintings, and intuitions for a new age.
The title essay, "Thoughts of Peace During an Air Raid," was written in August 1940 for an American symposium on contemporary women's issues. In it, Woolf discusses how the patriarchal desire to rule and enslave leads to wars and dictatorships.