Ralph M. Townsend was a career officer in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving terms of duty as U.S. Vice Counsel at Montreal and Shanghai, as well as at the Department of State in Washington. He resigned from the diplomatic corp in 1933 and accepted positions in public relations in New York and later in San Francisco. Active in efforts to prevent U.S. involvement in what ultimately became known as World War II, Townsend wrote for numerous anti-war publications including Scribner's Commentary, a leading non-interventionist journal. Although Ways That Are Dark (first published in 1933) was his first book, Townsend was also the author of several other studies of U.S. foreign policy... In his final volume he wrote: "A nation's real welfare improves only in peacetime. Hence, it is as much an obligation of patriotism to try to preserve peace, and prevent the necessity of defense arising, as to meet that necessity if it should arise." --- excerpt from book's back cover