On Wars

A history of wars through the ages and across the world, and the irrational calculations that so often lie behind them

Benjamin Franklin once said, “There never was a good war or a bad peace.” But what determines whether war or peace is chosen? Award—winning sociologist Michael Mann concludes that it is a handful of political leaders—people with emotions and ideologies, and constrained by inherited culture and institutions—who undertake such decisions, usually irrationally choosing war and...