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A review by albert_04
War! What Is It Good For?: Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots by Ian Morris
4.0
At first glance, the question 'is war good?' can be easily answered with a strong "no" considering that it is all about death and chaos. But Morris overturned and critically re-explore this common question using historical data and evidences presenting the different impacts and outcomes of major wars throughout history. Of course, we alreay know how bad is war, but Morris asks, do we all know what is it good on wars?
This is the central question of the book that Morris extensively answered. Its extensiveness is not simple and straightforward mere presentation of facts and arguments or list of good things about war; but instead, Morris journeyed to the long-term timelines of history and interdisciplinary evidences of archeology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology.
From the ancient past to the present, Morris' pace is incredibly patterned to answer how wars shaped the world. He also included an extra chapter exploring the chimpanzees (which I barely read because of its biological/scientifical approach). According to Morris, war can be productive and counter-productive, and includes certain chapters presenting its distinctions. Most of us are already aware on how wars can be counter-productive as it destroys peace and harmony. But productive wars, in the long run, can be beneficial. By detailing the benefits of war in building civilizations (Roman, Han, etc.), "producing bigger and better societies", declining violence, making "stronger governments, which have imposed peace and created the preconditions for prosperity", promoting military innovation and revolution, and etc.; there is indeed good at war. According to Morris, even though everything in war is paradoxical, (e.g. "using violence in war to lowered the payoffs from using further violence") war has played a part on where we are today.
~
I just felt that at some point, some of the book's contents are disturbing, especially the portions on how Morris oversimplified the hundred millions of death and so on through wars (specifically World war 1 & 2) to mere figures and percentages. He even said that their deaths and miseries were not in vain (knowing that the two World Wars killed millions of innocent civilians and soldiers) because after what Morris called "the most productive war of history—WWII", the world became a better and safer place (which is arguably true). Morris' main argument that violent deaths reduced tremendously from a 10-20% during the Stone Age to merely 1% on our present society also, I think, not a compelling figure to show how war can be good, considering that when those numbers are translated, the 10-20% of Stone Age societies are only a handful numbers considering they are small societies, while the 1% of today may be thousands or millions considering that we are today composed of billions of humans. Yes, the violence decreased and peace and prosperity increased, and the 'beast' on us are caged because of the evolutionary and historical changes, but it is just too vague to think that it is all because of wars.
The last chapter explores the future of war. Reading this part made me remember Yuval Noah Harrari's books hypothesizing the future with biological engineering, robotics, AI, and other stuffs. I expected that the book will end with a compelling and straightforward answer on what is it good on wars, but instead Morris explores the present and future scenarios of wars and how will it might come. There is also a short overview on the rise and fall of Pax Americana or the US' globocop, that will tremendously shape our future. Morris end his book not with a justification of waging wars (even productive wars), because even though wars uncomfortably—albeit not entirely—moved us to where we are today, productive wars can reach its culminating point at which the war's produced success can deliver tremendous disasters. We also need to acknowledge that there are a lot of unknown unknowns, and wars from the past will be entirely different on the wars of today or in the future.
~
Conclusively, I do enjoy this book. It is like reading a world history book focusing on wars. So even though one may not agree to Morris' claims and arguments, there are A LOT of historical information we can learn throughout this book.
This is the central question of the book that Morris extensively answered. Its extensiveness is not simple and straightforward mere presentation of facts and arguments or list of good things about war; but instead, Morris journeyed to the long-term timelines of history and interdisciplinary evidences of archeology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology.
From the ancient past to the present, Morris' pace is incredibly patterned to answer how wars shaped the world. He also included an extra chapter exploring the chimpanzees (which I barely read because of its biological/scientifical approach). According to Morris, war can be productive and counter-productive, and includes certain chapters presenting its distinctions. Most of us are already aware on how wars can be counter-productive as it destroys peace and harmony. But productive wars, in the long run, can be beneficial. By detailing the benefits of war in building civilizations (Roman, Han, etc.), "producing bigger and better societies", declining violence, making "stronger governments, which have imposed peace and created the preconditions for prosperity", promoting military innovation and revolution, and etc.; there is indeed good at war. According to Morris, even though everything in war is paradoxical, (e.g. "using violence in war to lowered the payoffs from using further violence") war has played a part on where we are today.
~
I just felt that at some point, some of the book's contents are disturbing, especially the portions on how Morris oversimplified the hundred millions of death and so on through wars (specifically World war 1 & 2) to mere figures and percentages. He even said that their deaths and miseries were not in vain (knowing that the two World Wars killed millions of innocent civilians and soldiers) because after what Morris called "the most productive war of history—WWII", the world became a better and safer place (which is arguably true). Morris' main argument that violent deaths reduced tremendously from a 10-20% during the Stone Age to merely 1% on our present society also, I think, not a compelling figure to show how war can be good, considering that when those numbers are translated, the 10-20% of Stone Age societies are only a handful numbers considering they are small societies, while the 1% of today may be thousands or millions considering that we are today composed of billions of humans. Yes, the violence decreased and peace and prosperity increased, and the 'beast' on us are caged because of the evolutionary and historical changes, but it is just too vague to think that it is all because of wars.
The last chapter explores the future of war. Reading this part made me remember Yuval Noah Harrari's books hypothesizing the future with biological engineering, robotics, AI, and other stuffs. I expected that the book will end with a compelling and straightforward answer on what is it good on wars, but instead Morris explores the present and future scenarios of wars and how will it might come. There is also a short overview on the rise and fall of Pax Americana or the US' globocop, that will tremendously shape our future. Morris end his book not with a justification of waging wars (even productive wars), because even though wars uncomfortably—albeit not entirely—moved us to where we are today, productive wars can reach its culminating point at which the war's produced success can deliver tremendous disasters. We also need to acknowledge that there are a lot of unknown unknowns, and wars from the past will be entirely different on the wars of today or in the future.
~
Conclusively, I do enjoy this book. It is like reading a world history book focusing on wars. So even though one may not agree to Morris' claims and arguments, there are A LOT of historical information we can learn throughout this book.