War : The New Edition
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Dr. Gwynne Dyer is one of Canada’s best known defence and foreign policy analysts."
—National Post
"The man knows whereof he speaks…. Dyer gives us a highly readable history of human warfare."
—Times Colonist (Victoria)
“Dyer’s clear language and convincing case building tow the reader along….I envy Dyer for his optimism. And I envy the generation he envisions who claims victory in its war on war.”
–Books in Canada
“Provocative, agile and very well argued, with an a-ha! moment on nearly every page.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“His book is no simple narrative but a web of connections. The text ranges over the terrain of history, sparkling with insight and digressions… As an interpretive history of war, War is brilliant.”
–The Seattle Times
Book Description
A new and revised edition of Dyer’s classic book, widely regarded as one of the most compelling analyses of the history of armed conflict.
“War is part of our history, but it is not in at all the same sense part of our prehistory. It is one of the innovations that occurred between nine and eleven thousand years ago when the first civilized societies were coming into being. What has been invented can be changed; war is not in our genes.”
With this provocative statement, Gwynne Dyer launches his brilliant discussion of the history and nature of war. He traces the growth of organized warfare through history, showing conclusively that the basic tenet has remained unchanged — war is an act of mass violence applied against an enemy so that he will do what you want him to do. The only real change has been technological, permitting us to make war on a mass scale.
At the height of the Cold War, just such a global conflagration seemed almost inevitable. But the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the ensuing political changes have forced a re-examination of the accepted fundamentals of history. Will open access to the channels of mass communication create enough shared values that we can move beyond mass warfare? Is the threat of terrorism a red herring designed to preserve the military status quo? Are our traditional military and administrative hierarchical structures still relevant?
Now, more than ever in our post–September 11 world, we need Gwynne Dyer’s expertise to understand the greatest and most human drama — the act of war.
Excerpt from War
The Siamese twins, army and state, have never been separated since they were born some eight or nine thousand years ago — and most of the time the state is the stronger of the twins. Armies exist to serve the interests of the state that owns them and their legitimacy comes solely from the fact that they belong to states; similar groups of armed men, if self-employed, are generally known as rebels or bandits. This is the context in which warfare, as opposed to casual and illegitimate violence, must be seen: it is something states do, and have always done, because they believe it serves their interest.
From the Hardcover edition.
War : The New Edition
War: The New Edition,Gwynne Dyer,Vintage Canada,0679313125,History - Military / War,Military - General,World - General,Current Events / Military
Books Report:
Recommended Books