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ameliatmoss's review
2.0
Meh? I think the organization of the chapters threw me. Its a bit meandering and she doesn’t talk about the larger questions until her conclusion. The only chapter I found particularly interesting was the chapter on trying to control war with laws and international organizations. I’m glad I read it and it made me want to dive into other war histories, but I don’t know if I’d recommend it to anyone really.
sam2085's review
4.0
A solid read that makes a persuasive case that war is a phenomenon in some ways as impactful as natural disasters and somewhat distinct from politics (contrary to Lyndon Johnson’s assertion that politics is war). The author argues that war changes society, often leading to increased organization, hierarchy, and the expansion of which individuals and groups recognized as full citizens within a society.
The book could have been stronger if it spent more time on the psychological impact and drew more frequently from conflicts other than the First World War.
The book could have been stronger if it spent more time on the psychological impact and drew more frequently from conflicts other than the First World War.
erboe501's review against another edition
2.0
To be honest, I had trouble focusing on listening to this audiobook. I was interested in the premise and the approach, but I kept losing my grasp on the threads.
spenar's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
While this book has some interesting, even novel, insights, it generally suffers from its ambition to condense such a broad topic into a short edition. While still an entertaining read, War is better at raising and reiterating the “big questions” on the subject rather than answering or meaningfully reframing them.
jimcaserta's review
2.0
We have just withdrawn from a 20 year war that has occupied ¾ of my adult life, and how that war has shaped America and the world was barely mentioned in War: How Conflict Shaped Us. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars, along with the 9/11 attack has been hugely influential in the past 20 years in America. The aftershocks of the Iraq invasion have rattled the middle east leading to dictators such as Qadaffi being overthrown and the horrendous civil war in Syria. How has the Iraq war shaped America, our allied fighters & the middle East? That’s a question I’d love to hear the answer to, but it was not in this book.
Perhaps the clearest throughline of how one war shapes countries, and leading to further war is Europe during WWI & WWII. Hemingway and the lost generation were not mentioned at all in this book. How WWI and the Treaty of Versailles shaped interwar Europe is a topic that deserved more attention. Beyond Europe, WWI resulted in a complete redrawing of borders in the middle east that has repercussions still today.
Other problems I had with the book was a seemingly ‘both sides are at fault’ attitude towards war and a focus on Western nations. The American Civil war was mentioned a lot, but slavery might not have been mentioned at all (I forgot to search for the term). The causes and aftermath of that war, as well as a discussion of morals surrounding them were absent. The mongol invasions had, and could argue still have, considerable impact on two of today’s largest nations: Russia and China. I don’t remember if those invasions shaping those nations attitudes towards external risks was in the book.
This book contains a lot of research, but leans too heavily on works like Steven Pinker’s Better Angels of our Nature. Pinker is not a historian, and MacMillan would have been better suited to go through to his references instead of relying on his interpretation. I like the idea of a book that explains how war has shaped the nations of today, but this book did not answer that question for me.
Perhaps the clearest throughline of how one war shapes countries, and leading to further war is Europe during WWI & WWII. Hemingway and the lost generation were not mentioned at all in this book. How WWI and the Treaty of Versailles shaped interwar Europe is a topic that deserved more attention. Beyond Europe, WWI resulted in a complete redrawing of borders in the middle east that has repercussions still today.
Other problems I had with the book was a seemingly ‘both sides are at fault’ attitude towards war and a focus on Western nations. The American Civil war was mentioned a lot, but slavery might not have been mentioned at all (I forgot to search for the term). The causes and aftermath of that war, as well as a discussion of morals surrounding them were absent. The mongol invasions had, and could argue still have, considerable impact on two of today’s largest nations: Russia and China. I don’t remember if those invasions shaping those nations attitudes towards external risks was in the book.
This book contains a lot of research, but leans too heavily on works like Steven Pinker’s Better Angels of our Nature. Pinker is not a historian, and MacMillan would have been better suited to go through to his references instead of relying on his interpretation. I like the idea of a book that explains how war has shaped the nations of today, but this book did not answer that question for me.
kat12009's review against another edition
3.0
I was expecting something more, but this reads as an introductory text for a course on the history of war. I found it rather repetitive but thought it is a good jumping off point for deeper thinking about the role war has played in shaping our world.
joeynedland's review against another edition
4.0
I think the premise of this book is fascinating, but something about the anecdotal way it was written prevented me from giving it 5 stars. Perhaps it’s innate to historical non-fiction, but part of me was hoping for a bit more pontificating on the role of war vis a vis human nature. Still, a great historical account of a topic I haven’t given much thought to!