War and the rise of the state : the military foundations of modern politics

Examines both civil wars and international conflicts, exploring warfare's effect on states. From Publishers Weekly Porter, a political scientist at Brigham Young University, demonstrates that wars have been catalysts for increasing the size and power of Western governments since the Renaissance. The state's monopoly of effective violence has diminished not only individual rights and liberties, but also the ability of local communities and private associates to challenge the centralization of authority. Porter's originality lies in his thesis that war, breaking down barriers of class, gender, ethnicity and ideology, also contributes to meritocracy, mobility, and, above all, democratization. Porter also posits the emergence of the "Scientific Warfare State," a political system in which advanced technology would render obsolete mass participation in war. This provocative study merits wide circulation and serious discussion. From Library Journal Surveying the past 500 years of Western history, Porter examines the effects that warfare has had on the growth of the centralized state in the West. Although we do not like to admit it, our contemporary society clearly has been shaped by war's effects. In the United States, the demands of fighting the Civil War, two world wars, and the Cold War all influenced the contours of our government and social institutions. Porter voices concerns about the impact that the end of the Cold War will have on the overall cohesiveness of American society. Without the specter of an aggressive USSR, how will our political leaders rally the nation to solve our more intractable and messy domestic problems? Porter is not sanguine about our overcoming the very human trait of using violence to effect change. If we have not learned any lessons from the past, new and awful wars await us in the next century. This fine survey of Western military history is recommended for academic collections emphasizing military and political history. "In a sweeping study of the West over the last 500 years, Bruce Porter shows the astonishing range of warfare's modernizing effects on states. Warfare unifies, rallies, and bureaucratizes both states and their populaces; warfare triggers nationalism, reform movements, and revolutions. More positively, through its inevitable mobilization of citizenry, war has been a contributing cause of virtually all major social movements and even democracy. Porter examines major civil wars as well as international conflicts, showing how they served as catalysts for the New Monorachies, absolutist states, nation-states, totalitarian states, and contemporary industrial and post-industrial states. Finishing with an examination of the impact on the American state of the Civil War, the two World Wars, and the Cold War, Porter reveals our own paradox: pro-military conservatives denounce big government, forgetting that military might presupposes political power; anti-military liberals embraces to the power of the state to accomplish social ends while hesitating to acknowledge the military origins of that power."--The dust-jacket flaps States make war, but war also makes states.As Publishers Weekly notes, “Porter, a political scientist at Brigham Young University, demonstrates that wars have been catalysts for increasing the size and power of Western governments since the Renaissance. The state's monopoly of effective violence has diminished not only individual rights and liberties, but also the ability of local communities and private associates to challenge the centralization of authority. Porter's originality lies in his thesis that war, breaking down barriers of class, gender, ethnicity, and ideology, also contributes to meritocracy, mobility, and, above all, democratization. Porter also posits the emergence of the “Scientific Warfare State,” a political system in which advanced technology would render obsolete mass participation in war. This provocative study merits wide circulation and serious discussion.”