War in Human Civilization

by: Gat, A.

Price: 32,00 EURO

1 copy in stock

War in Human Civilization
Azar Gat
The riddle of war - and how to unravel it
The first truly global study of the relationship between war and civilization
Panoramic in its historical sweep, from pre-history through to the twenty-first century

Description

Why do people go to war? Is it rooted in human nature or is it a late cultural invention? How does war relate to the other fundamental developments in the history of human civilization? And what of war today - is it a declining phenomenon or simply changing its shape?

In this truly global study of war and civilization, Azar Gat sets out to find definitive answers to these questions in an attempt to unravel the 'riddle of war' throughout human history, from the early hunter-gatherers right through to the unconventional terrorism of the twenty-first century.

In the process, the book generates an astonishing wealth of original and fascinating insights on all major aspects of humankind's remarkable journey through the ages, engaging a wide range of disciplines, from anthropology and evolutionary psychology to sociology and political science. Written with remarkable verve and clarity and wholly free from jargon, it will be of interest to anyone who has ever pondered the puzzle of war.

Table of Contents
Part 1: Warfare in the First Two Million Years: Environment, Genes, and Culture
1:Introduction: The Human 'State of Nature'
2:Peaceful or War-like: Did Hunter-Gatherers Fight?
3:Why Fighting? The Evolutionary Perspective
4:Motivation: Food and Sex
5:Motivation: the Web of Desire
6:'Primitive Warfare': How Was It Done?
7:Conclusion: Fighting in the Evolutionary State of Nature
Part 2: Agriculture, Civilization, and War
8:Introduction: Evolving Cultural Complexity
9:Tribal Warfare in Agraria and Pastoralia
10:Armed Force in the Emergence of the State
11:The Eurasian Spearhead: East, West, and the Steppe
12:Conclusion: War, the Leviathan, and the Pleasures and Miseries of Civilization
Part 3: Modernity: the Dual Face of Janus
13:Introduction: the Explosion of Wealth and Power
14:Guns and Markets: the New European States and a Global World
15:Unbound and Bound Prometheus: Machine Age War
16:Affluent Liberal Democracies, Ultimate Weapons, and the World
17:Conclusion: Unravelling the Riddle of War
Endnotes
Index

War in Human Civilization

by: Gat, A.

• ISBN-13: 9780199236633 / 978-0-19-923663-3
• ISBN-03: 0199236631 / 0-19-923663-1
• Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008

Price: 32,00 EURO

1 copy in stock