Author: Gwynne Dyer
Publisher: PERSEUS / RUNNING PRESS, Jul 2006
Binding: Softcover
ISBN: 0-7867-1771-8
Synopsis
A brilliant, powerful, & lucid text on warfare that explores anthropology, archaeology, & strategic theory, while asking the vital question: Is war an inevitable part of the human future, or can we leave it behind, as we have slavery & human sacrifice? B&W photos, 66 B&W illus; notes, index. 6x9 inches, 496 pgs.
More Information
While modern science ponders whether human beings are programmed toward belligerence and warfare, there is no doubt that war has been humanity?s constant companion since the dawn of civilization, and that we have become all too proficient in its conduct.
In War, noted military historian Gwynne Dyer ranges from the tumbling walls of Jericho to the modern advent of total war in which no one is exempt from the horrors of armed conflict. He shows how the martial instinct has evolved over the human generations and among our close primate relations, such as the chimpanzee. Dyer squarely confronts the reality of war, and the threat of nuclear weapons, but does not despair that war is our eternal legacy. He likes and respects soldiers, even while he knows their job is to kill; he understands the physics and the psychology of battles, but he is no war junkie. Dyer surveys the fiery battlefields of human history, never losing sight of the people caught up in war. He actually believes there is hope that war can be abolished, that human beings are more than just our genes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gwynne Dyer served in the Canadian, British, and American navies. He earned a Ph.D. in military history from the University of London and was a senior lecturer in war studies at the University of London and was a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. The original version of this book, published in 1985, won a Columbia University School of Journalism Award. A 7-part TV series based upon War was broadcast in 45 countries in the mid-1980s. Dyer writes a twice-weekly newspaper column on int'l affairs & security policy that is published in 175 newspapers worldwide. He lives in London with his wife and children.