A history of wars through the ages and across the world and the irrational calculations that
so often lie behind them Benjamin Franklin once said “There never was a good war or a bad
peace.” But what determines whether war or peace is chosen? Award-winning sociologist Michael
Mann concludes that it is a handful of political leaders—people with emotions and ideologies
and constrained by inherited culture and institutions—who undertake such decisions usually
irrationally choosing war and seldom achieving their desired results. Mann examines the
history of war through the ages and across the globe—from ancient Rome to Ukraine from
imperial China to the Middle East from Japan and Europe to Latin and North America. He
explores the reasons groups go to war the different forms of wars how warfare has changed and
how it has stayed the same and the surprising ways in which seemingly powerful countries lose
wars. In masterfully combining ideological economic political and military analysis Mann
offers new insight into the many consequences of choosing war.
