The Culture of War

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Overview

A respected scholar of military history and an expert on strategy, Martin van Creveld recently explored the modern world’s shifting method of combat in The Changing Face of War. Now, in The Culture of War, he argues that there is much more to war than just soldiers killing one another for whatever reason.

War has always been a topic of deep intrigue. Fighting itself can be a source of great, perhaps even the greatest, joy; out of this joy and fascination an entire culture has grown–from the war paint of tribal warriors to today’s “tiger suits,” from Julius Caesar’s red cloak to Douglas McArthur’s pipe, from the decorative shields of ancient Greece to today’s nose art, and from the invention of chess around 600 A.D. to the most modern combat simulators. The culture of war has its own traditions, laws and customs, rituals, ceremonies, music, art, literature, and monuments since the beginning of civilization.

Throughout the ages, the culture of war has usually been highly esteemed. Not so in today’s advanced countries, which tend either to mock it (“military intelligence is to intelligence what military music is to music”) or to denounce it as “militaristic.” This provocative book, the first of its kind, sets out to show how wrongheaded, and even dangerous, such attitudes are. The Culture of War argues that men and women, contrary to the hopes of some, are just as fascinated by war today as they have been in the past. A military that has lost touch with the culture of war is doomed not merely to defeat but to disintegration.

Innovative, authoritative, and riveting, this is a major work by one of the world’s greatest and most insightful military historians.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Hebrew University's van Creveld remains unsurpassed as a scholar of war. In this provocative volume, he challenges perhaps the subject's single greatest shibboleth-at least in Western culture. Since the Enlightenment, war has been described as a means to an end, serving essentially rational interests. Nothing, van Creveld asserts, could be further from the truth: "war exercises a powerful fascination in its own right." To dismiss this is to overlook that war has generated a distinctive culture, from uniforms to war games to parades, that is despised and regularly denigrated as atavistic and irrational. Van Creveld demonstrates that war is an essential element of history, rooted in psychology. In a tour de force of scholarship and insight, he takes readers through the processes of preparing for, waging and commemorating war. That culture makes men face death willingly, even enthusiastically, because it is an end in itself. "[T]o be of any use, the culture of war must be useless." Its traditions and rules are not constructions, but part of the fighter's soul-and as such, for better and worse, part of the human condition. Illus. (Sept. 30)

Kirkus Reviews

In a lengthy but never boring volume, prolific military historian van Creveld (History/Hebrew Univ.; The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat, from the Marne to Iraq, 2007, etc.) offers a rich, satisfying examination of the role war has played since the Stone Age. He begins with a sneer at "bleeding hearts" who believe war is a loathsome aberration unworthy of study, but he sneers equally hard at conservative "neo-realists" in government who, in their ignorance, treat it as a macho extension of diplomacy and lead nations into catastophe (the author is no friend of the Iraq War). Van Creveld emphasizes that war has always fascinated humans. Beginning before the dawn of history, societies have surrounded it with ceremonies, decoration, play and other affectations often irrelevant, and sometimes counterproductive, to strategy. Military dress, parades and even weapon design bear only a distant relation to battlefield practicalities but occupy a significant role in every culture. Even in today's gender-neutral world, the author notes, education emphasizes martial virtues (the importance of taking risks, teamwork, sacrifice, etc.). Van Creveld then moves on to the culture of warfare itself: the ritual of transition into war and back to peace, the pleasure of fighting and the rules of engagement. Despite the pacifist claim that true war is lawless slaughter and that no sane person enjoys it, van Creveld argues that the opposite is true. He points out that antiwar beliefs have always existed but only became politically correct in the 18th century, adding that history contradicts the stock accusation that self-seeking national leaders inflict war on an unwilling population or thatdemocracies never fight each other. Neither pro- nor anti-, the author treats war as a natural human activity and makes a good case in this well-delineated account of the traditions, rituals and laws that accompany it. Agent: Leslie Gardner/Artellus Limited

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780345505408
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 9/30/2008
Pages: 512
Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 9.30 (h) x 1.50 (d)

Meet the Author

Martin van Creveld, professor of history at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, is one of the best-known experts on military history and strategy. He has written eighteen books, which have been translated into fourteen languages; most notable among them are The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat, from Marne to Iraq; Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton; Command in War; and The Transformation of War. Professor van Creveld has consulted to the defense departments of numerous governments, including that of the United States. He was the second civilian expert ever to be invited to address the Israeli General Staff, and has lectured or taught at practically every institute of strategic military study. Van Creveld has appeared on CNN, BBC, and other international networks and has been featured in many magazines and newspapers, including Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune.

I Preparing for War 1

1 From War Paint to Tiger Suits 3

2 From Boomerangs to Bastions 27

3 Educating Warriors 46

4 Games of War 64

II In War and Battle 85

5 Opening Gambits 87

6 The Joy of Combat 106

7 The Rules of War 129

8 Ending War 149

III Commemorating War 169

9 History and War 171

10 Literature and War 188

11 Art and War 209

12 Monuments to War 229

IV A World Without War? 249

13 A Short History of Peace 253

14 The Waning of Major War 270

15 Beyond the Pale 290

16 Quo Vadis, Homo? 310

V Contrasts 333

17 The Wild Horde 335

18 The Soulless Machine 353

19 Men Without Chests 375

20 Feminism 396

Conclusions: The Great Paradox 411

Acknowledgments 417

Notes 419

Index 467

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