A respected scholar of military history and an expert on strategy, Martin van Creveld recently explored the modern world's shifting method of combat in The Changing Face of War . Now, in The Culture of War , he argues that there is much more to war than just soldiers killing one another for whatever reason. War has always been a topic of deep intrigue. Fighting itself can be a source of great, perhaps even the greatest, joy; out of this joy and fascination an entire culture has grown--from the war paint of tribal warriors ...
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A respected scholar of military history and an expert on strategy, Martin van Creveld recently explored the modern world's shifting method of combat in The Changing Face of War . Now, in The Culture of War , he argues that there is much more to war than just soldiers killing one another for whatever reason. War has always been a topic of deep intrigue. Fighting itself can be a source of great, perhaps even the greatest, joy; out of this joy and fascination an entire culture has grown--from the war paint of tribal warriors to today's "tiger suits," from Julius Caesar's red cloak to Douglas MacArthur's pipe, from the decorative shields of ancient Greece to modern aircraft nose art, and from the invention of chess around A.D. 600 to cyber era combat simulators. The culture of war has had its own traditions, laws, rituals, music, art, literature, and monuments since the beginning of civilization. Through the ages, the culture of war has usually been highly esteemed. Not so in today's advanced countries, which tend either to mock it ("Military intelligence is to intelligence what military music is to music") or to denounce it as "militaristic." This provocative book, the first of its kind, sets out to show how wrongheaded, and even dangerous, such attitudes are. The Culture of War argues that men and women today, contrary to the hopes of some, are just as fascinated by war as they have been in the past. A military that has lost touch with the culture of war is doomed not merely to defeat but to disintegration. Innovative, authoritative, and riveting, The Culture of War is a major work by one of the world's greatest and most insightful military historians.
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Add this copy of The Culture of War to cart. $65.67, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Tantor and Blackstone Publishi.
Add this copy of The Culture of War to cart. $100.77, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Tantor and Blackstone Publishi.
Professor van Creveld has written a book that shows how war has permeated culture and become a culture itself. The main theme of the book is summarized in his discussion on preparing for war: "Even the most cursory examination of such [war]games suggests that serious preparation for war and mere entertainment, training and fun, make-believe and reality, are as closely entwined today as they have always been." War has also created what one could describe as a sub-culture, that is, a group with its own symbols and expressions, styles and ways of doing things. Often using examples from literature and the movies, the interconnectedness of war and culture is set forth. While he does mention women and war, it frequently is in a chauvinistic manner and mainly in the next to the last chapter entitled "Feminism."
