War : the lethal custom

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. War is an award-winning book that explores the human past to imagine a different future.

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.

War is an award-winning book that explores the human past to imagine a different future.

Kirkus Reviews

An anthropological and psychological account of the human propensity for organized murderous mischief. War, writes U.K.-based syndicated columnist Dyer, is not a consequence of civilization, as some scholars have argued; it's clear, he asserts, that modern human beings did not invent warfare. We inherited it. The bequest comes courtesy of our Paleolithic and even protohominid ancestors, a la the opening scenes of 2001, yet supposedly civilized people have become ever so accomplished at developing new and improved ways to slaughter each other, and a hallmark of progress has been a steady advance in the effectiveness of our fighting forces. On the last point Dyer is particularly good; whereas primitives fought battles that were largely symbolic (if sometimes lethal), and whereas the vast majority of the weapons thrown down and abandoned at Gettysburg were loaded but not fired, as if to spare the enemy, modern martial societies such as the U.S. Marines instill the notion that their members are killers foremost. Killer or angel, field soldiers have short-term jobs: either they're wounded or killed themselves, or they collapse psychically. The U.S. Army calculated during WWII, writes Dyer, that this breakdown occurs within 240 days of combat, while the British, who rotated soldiers from the line more frequently, allowed 400 days. Everyone was a candidate, but the reason psychiatric disorders did not show up more frequently in the casualty rolls, Dyer suggests, was that most combat troops did not survive long enough to go to pieces. Combat has changed since WWII, and individual soldiers have a somewhat better chance of survival, though the game keeps shifting: here, war is a matter ofterrorism, there of conventional forces turned to genocide, and always the shadow of the Bomb hangs over us. War as an extension of politics may seem either absurd or obscene to outsiders, Dyer observes, adding that as long as people insist that war has its adherents, we need a genuinely strong United Nations to keep the planet from going up in flames. Provocative, agile and very well argued, with an a-ha! moment on nearly every page.

A New And Revised Edition Of Dyer’s Classic Book, Widely Regarded As One Of The Most Compelling Analyses Of The History Of Armed Conflict. “war Is Part Of Our History, But It Is Not In At All The Same Sense Part Of Our Prehistory. It Is One Of The Innovations That Occurred Between Nine And Eleven Thousand Years Ago When The First Civilized Societies Were Coming Into Being. What Has Been Invented Can Be Changed; War Is Not In Our Genes.” With This Provocative Statement, Gwynne Dyer Launches His Brilliant Discussion Of The History And Nature Of War. He Traces The Growth Of Organized Warfare Through History, Showing Conclusively That The Basic Tenet Has Remained Unchanged — War Is An Act Of Mass Violence Applied Against An Enemy So That He Will Do What You Want Him To Do. The Only Real Change Has Been Technological, Permitting Us To Make War On A Mass Scale. At The Height Of The Cold War, Just Such A Global Conflagration Seemed Almost Inevitable. But The Collapse Of The Iron Curtain And The Ensuing Political Changes Have Forced A Re-examination Of The Accepted Fundamentals Of History. Will Open Access To The Channels Of Mass Communication Create Enough Shared Values That We Can Move Beyond Mass Warfare? Is The Threat Of Terrorism A Red Herring Designed To Preserve The Military Status Quo? Are Our Traditional Military And Administrative Hierarchical Structures Still Relevant? Now, More Than Ever In Our Post–september 11 World, We Need Gwynne Dyer’s Expertise To Understand The Greatest And Most Human Drama — The Act Of War. Excerpt From War The Siamese Twins, Army And State, Have Never Been Separated Since They Were Born Some Eight Or Nine Thousand Years Ago — And Most Of The Time The State Is The Stronger Of The Twins. Armies Exist To Serve The Interests Of The State That Owns Them And Their Legitimacy Comes Solely From The Fact That They Belong To States; Similar Groups Of Armed Men, If Self-employed, Are Generally Known As Rebels Or Bandits. This Is The Context In Which Warfare, As Opposed To Casual And Illegitimate Violence, Must Be Seen: It Is Something States Do, And Have Always Done, Because They Believe It Serves Their Interest. Ranging from the tumbling walls of Jericho to the modern advent of total war in which no child or civilian is exempt from the horrors of combat, the author shows how the martial instinct has evolved over the human generations. He demonstrates that the underlying purpose of war has remained unchanged while technology has developed to such a degree that were total combat to break out among the great powers, a million people could be dead before worldwide media reported the conflict THE CONCLUSION WAS GETTING HARD TO AVOID EVEN BEFORE the advent of nuclear weapons: the game of war is up, and we are going to have to change the rules if we are to survive.