Battle

by Lynn, John A.

• ISBN13: 9780813333717
• ISBN10: 0813333717
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

Battle: A History of Combat and Culturespans the globe and the centuries to explore the way ideas shape the conduct of warfare. Drawing its examples from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and America, John A. Lynn challenges the belief that technology has been the dominant influence on combat from ancient times to the present day. In battle, ideas can be more far more important than bullets or bombs. Clausewitz proclaimed that war is politics, but even more basically, war is culture. The hard reality of armed conflict is formed by and, in turn, forms a culture's values, assumptions, and expectations about fighting. The author examines the relationship between the real and the ideal, arguing that feedback between the two follows certain discernable paths.Battlerejects the currently fashionable notion of a "Western way of warfare" and replaces it with more nuanced concepts of varied and evolving cultural patterns of combat. After considering history, Lynn finally asks how the knowledge gained might illuminate our understanding of the war on terrorism.

Author Biography

John A. Lynn is a professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. IX
Preface: Requiem for the Universal Soldier	p. XIII
Written in Blood: The Classical Greek Drama of Battle and the Western Way of War	p. 1
Subtleties of Violence: Ancient Chinese and Indian Texts on Warfare	p. 29
Chivalry and Chevauchee: The Ideal, the Real, and the Perfect in Medieval European Warfare	p. 73
Linear Warfare: Images and Ideals of Combat in the Age of Enlightenment	p. 111
Victories of the Conquered: The Native Character of the Sepoy	p. 145
The Sun of Austerlitz: Romantic Visions of Decisive Battle in Nineteenth-Century Europe	p. 179
The Merciless Fight: Race and Military Culture in the Pacific War	p. 219
Crossing the Canal: Egyptian Effectiveness and Military Culture in the October War	p. 281
Epilogue: Terrorism: Forming a New Military Discourse on War	p. 317
The Discourse and the Reality of War: A Cultural Model	p. 359
Notes	p. 371
Index	p. 417
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