War (Hardback)
How Conflict Shaped Us
Buy from
How the human history of conflict has transformed the world we live in - for good and evil.
New York Times 10 Best Book of 2020
Sunday Times best book for Autumn 2020
Guardian critics' pick for Autumn 2020
Wall Street Journal notable book of 2020
The time since the Second World War has been seen by some as the longest uninterrupted period of harmony in human history: the 'long peace', as Stephen Pinker called it. But despite this, there has been a military conflict ongoing every year since 1945. The same can be said for every century of recorded history. Is war, therefore, an essential part of being human?
In War, Professor Margaret MacMillan explores the deep links between society and war and the questions they raise. We learn when war began - whether among early homo sapiens or later, as we began to organise ourselves into tribes and settle in communities. We see the ways in which war reflects changing societies and how war has brought change - for better and worse.
Economies, science, technology, medicine, culture: all are instrumental in war and have been shaped by it - without conflict it we might not have had penicillin, female emancipation, radar or rockets. Throughout history, writers, artists, film-makers, playwrights, and composers have been inspired by war - whether to condemn, exalt or simply puzzle about it. If we are never to be rid of war, how should we think about it and what does that mean for peace?
War (Ebook)
How Conflict Shaped Us
Buy from
How the human history of conflict has transformed the world we live in - for good and evil.
New York Times 10 Best Book of 2020
Sunday Times best book for Autumn 2020
Guardian critics' pick for Autumn 2020
Wall Street Journal notable book of 2020
The time since the Second World War has been seen by some as the longest uninterrupted period of harmony in human history: the 'long peace', as Stephen Pinker called it. But despite this, there has been a military conflict ongoing every year since 1945. The same can be said for every century of recorded history. Is war, therefore, an essential part of being human?
In War, Professor Margaret MacMillan explores the deep links between society and war and the questions they raise. We learn when war began - whether among early homo sapiens or later, as we began to organise ourselves into tribes and settle in communities. We see the ways in which war reflects changing societies and how war has brought change - for better and worse.
Economies, science, technology, medicine, culture: all are instrumental in war and have been shaped by it - without conflict it we might not have had penicillin, female emancipation, radar or rockets. Throughout history, writers, artists, film-makers, playwrights, and composers have been inspired by war - whether to condemn, exalt or simply puzzle about it. If we are never to be rid of war, how should we think about it and what does that mean for peace?
Reviews for War
Robert B. Zoellick, former President of the World Bank
George Shultz
Evan Thomas, author of Ike's Bluff
Professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University and author of Do Morals Matter?
Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times
Roger Boyes The Times
John Thornhill FT
Martin Chilton Independent
Globe and Mail
New York Times
Ben East Observer
Robert Gerwarth Irish Times
Margaret MacMillan
Related books

History's People
Margaret MacMillan
From the author of The War That Ended Peace: vivid accounts of the men and women who shaped history

The War that Ended Peace
Margaret MacMillan
The definitive history of the political, cultural, military and personal forces which shaped Europe's path to the Great War – now in paperback.

The Uses and Abuses of History
Margaret MacMillan
'MacMillan has written illuminatingly on topics as diverse as the 1919 Paris peace conference and Nixon in China. Perhaps more unusually she is al…