The Antique Drums of WarTexas A&M University Press, 1994 - 219 sivua Why is war, with all its terror and destruction, so seemingly attractive to humankind? The Antique Drums of War provides a deeply thoughtful and provocative consideration of the sources of war: in archaic instincts, social ritual, animal behavior and evolutionary logic, mythmaking, and psychology. It traces the continuity of such aspects of war as unit size, tactics, and the function of uniforms from primitive beginnings through recent wars. The actual experiences of men in battle, drawn from the personal reminiscences of soldiers from various periods of history, give a sense of immediacy to the narrative. James H. McRandle portrays modern war, despite its dispassionate, computerized brutality, as a kind of ritual that resembles in many of its particulars the ritual of war as practiced since the earliest ages of humanity. But ritual is only one of the characteristics of the institution of war. Mythmaking, psychological techniques, social forces, instinctive responses to fear, and aggressiveness are all martialed and manipulated through ritual to serve war's purposes. Some of Mcrandle's conclusions will be controversial, particularly his argument that warfare served to promote gene flow between separated and isolated groups of Homo erectus and early Homo Sapiens. Throughout, his novel approaches and use of eclectic intellectual perspectives will stimulate those concerned about the possible causes of war and war's possible remedy. |
Sisältö
| 3 | |
| 15 | |
Orpheus in Piccadilly | 48 |
Band of Brothers | 82 |
Foxholes of the Mind | 113 |
The Action of the Tiger | 142 |
The Coordinates of Chaos | 165 |
The Long March Preservation and Change | 180 |
Notes | 195 |
Bibliography | 207 |
Index | 213 |
Muita painoksia - Näytä kaikki
Yleiset termit ja lausekkeet
able accept action activity aggressive American animal appear armies attack battle battlefield become begin behavior body Britain British carried causes century Civil close combat commander common concern continue danger death effect enemy entire established evidence existence experience face fact fear feel field fighting fire forces front German give given Homo human hunting important individual instances involved killing least less living London losses major male marked means military move necessary needed noted observed occur officers organization particularly perhaps period persons Pleistocene population possible practice prepared primitive probably question reason recent remain result ritual seen sense serve simply situation society soldier species successful taken tended things tion troops true turn unit warfare warriors wars weapons women World
Suositut otteet
Sivu 31 - Now entertain conjecture of a time, When creeping murmur, and the poring dark, Fills the wide vessel of the universe. From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, The hum of either army stilly sounds, That the fix'd sentinels almost receive The secret whispers of each other's watch...
Sivu 157 - Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage ; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; Let it pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it As fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit To his full height.
Sivu 78 - Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Sivu 23 - Some Thracian strutteth with my shield, For, being somewhat flurried, I left it in a wayside bush, When from the field I hurried ; A right good targe, but I got off, The deuce may take the shield; I'll get another just as good When next I go afield.
Sivu 73 - The Stock Exchange will be pulled down, the horse plough will give way to the tractor, the country houses will be turned into children's holiday camps, the Eton and Harrow match will be forgotten, but England will still be England, an everlasting animal stretching into the future and the past, and, like all living things, having the power to change out of recognition and yet remain the same.
Sivu 59 - One after another signals came in, "40 plus", "60 plus"; there was even an "80 plus". On the floor-table below us the movement of all the waves of attack was marked by pushing discs forward from minute to minute along different lines of approach, while on the blackboard facing us the rising lights showed our fighter squadrons getting into the air, till there were only four or five left "At Readiness".
Sivu 69 - ... fire itself. There were rum fires, with torrents of blazing liquid pouring from the warehouse doors and barrels exploding like bombs themselves. There was a paint fire, another cascade of white-hot flame, coating the pumps with varnish that could not be cleaned for weeks. A rubber fire gave forth black clouds of smoke so asphyxiating that it could only be fought from a distance, and was always threatening to choke the attackers. Sugar, it seems, burns well in liquid form as it floats on the water...
Sivu 68 - There were pepper fires, loading the surrounding air heavily with stinging particles so that when the firemen took a deep breath it felt like breathing fire itself. There were rum fires, with torrents of blazing liquid pouring from the warehouse doors (nor any drop to drink) and barrels exploding like bombs themselves.
Sivu 44 - Oh ! We don't want to lose you, But we think you ought to go.
Sivu 72 - Was there perhaps a new race of Englishmen arising out of this war, a race of men bred by the war, a harmonious synthesis of the governing class and the great rest of England; that synthesis of disparate backgrounds and upbringings to be seen at its most obvious best in RAF Squadrons?
Viitteet tähän teokseen
Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War Barbara Ehrenreich Rajoitettu esikatselu - 1997 |
Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War Barbara Ehrenreich Rajoitettu esikatselu - 1997 |