War: How Conflict Shaped Us

This is not hardcore history. Rather, it is an impressionistic rumination by an esteemed historian who has earned the right to ruminate. We don't really learn much, but every page sets our minds churning, which is what a good rumination is supposed to do.Which view is more accurate, Hobbes's--war is the natural condition of humanity, or Rousseau's--war is an aberration? MacMillan is in the Hobbes camp. War is innate in us, ambient, always lurking.Historians earn their keep by identifying the causes of war. A battleship explodes in Havana harbor, the Austrian archduke is assassinated, Paris abducts Helen, Austria's delegates are thrown out of a window in Prague, Orthodox and Catholic monks jostling for control of Christ's tomb spark the Crimean War, the Amalekites are in Joshua's way, Genghis Kahn needs loot to keep his empire intact, Hitler needs to establish Aryan supremacy, and on and on.Those who want a better world should spend their time seeking, not the causes of war (or "root causes" as some superficial writers say), but the causes of peace. Why, for example, has war-ravaged Europe now had 75 years of peace? Why has the UN been so laughably impotent in thwarting the 300 or so armed conflicts outside Europe during the same period? Why have the first and third longest borders on earth--those between Canada and America and Mexico and America--not had a single artillery piece, or tank, or infantry regiment stationed on it for 150 years?You won't get the answers from MacMillan's absorbing book. But you will be stirred to thinking. And you can read it in a day or two.

An excellent survey and summary of the many, many aspects of war that continue to fascinate and puzzle us. As MacMillan herself writes, the book is an attempt to answer the question, "Are war and humanity inextricably interwoven?"The author brings her encyclopedic knowledge of war, its causes and consequences to a narrative which covers a wide variety of topics. It certainly isn't just a chronology or a list of Kings, Generals and battles. It's more philosophical and reflective than that. She examines the many ways in which society, war and technology interact with one another. She doesn't offer any simplistic, neat or glib solutions, but she does shine a probing light into some dark, and often neglected, places.In passing MacMillan also raises some unexpected questions, for example, why do some conflicts seem to produce a particularly rich outpouring of creative, artistic expression - the First World War and Vietnam for example - whereas others - the Second World War - don't to the same extent. In exploring this she made what I thought was a very insightful observation that, "For the Americans, Vietnam did what the First World War did for the Europeans; it shook their confidence in themselves and their civilization." Maybe that had something to do with why there was so much art of every sort that emanated from those two conflicts.The book proves to be a marvelous examination of the question she set out to answer.

Many of the books and stories I've read are referenced in this trick of a book. The liberal idea that business interconnections will help prevent war is updated. I am glad it is not completely dead. Tritium about killed it for me. More to say it only works when people believe in it. Good to see Frederc Manning so relied on. I say trick since a lot is covered in a short space.

Having read and very much admired Ms. MacMillan's "The War That Ended Peace", I eagerly awaited this book, and bought it as soon as it came out. It is indeed a very interesting book, and also a readable one. It also stresses some ideas that bear notice -- that war and the nation state are interdependent, that the general view on any given war can change drastically over time, and that art and war have a strong and shifting relationship. But, for me, it doesn't answer some essential questions. Is war innate in human nature? What is war like for the warrior? The only conclusion presented on the second issue is that war is a mystery. This isn't proposed as an answer to the first, but it was the answer the book created for me. A more direct approach would have been welcome -- if perhaps impossible.

Knowledge. Learning of the past histories is so much more valuable than popular novels.

Um livro muito bom, mas considero outros da mesma autora bem melhores.

A good general read of how war has effected us.

Exhaustively researched and bursting with ‘interesting’ tidbits of information - but this is WAR she is talking about! How can you write an entire treatise from an obviously learned knowledge of the subject, but never show your hand? Perhaps my expectations were wrong, but I found the dispassionate relating of the horrors of war - with no more than an airy academic acknowledgement of their depravity, gradually became profoundly disturbing. I kept waiting for the prelude to end and the serious discussion to begin on what mankind might do to end this insanity - but it never came. Caveat emptor.

I believe Ms. MacMillan wrote this book to underline the importance of wars s it’s a series of essays and not chronological history of events. Nor, is it a single argument extending through the length of the book. For example, the first chapter is entitled “Humanity, Society, and War” where she argues about the importance of war as a subject of study. She describes how societies forces societies to become more organised both in the fighting and the provision of necessities for the fighters. For example, armies need money and so the reason for the formation of the Bank of England. To be able to afford ever larger armies, the government must become centralized. If it’s going to make its citizens fight in these wars, then some form of citizenship must be granted. Better education and nutrition produce a better army. Penicillin, blood transfusions and triage all developed during war time. Women were given the vote during wartime and war can narrow the gap between rich and poor.In other chapters, Ms. MacMillan explains the reasons for war, how modern war is being fought differently from wars in the past, the role of civilians during war, and the making of the warrior. Because each of the chapters provides a separate argument with the attendant instances of support, the book reads like a series of essays and so may lack a cohesive structure. That said, it could be considered essential reading for those with an interest in war, its contributions, its destructiveness, and the changes it makes to political and economic conditions.