War! What Is It Good For? Book Summary - War! What Is It Good For? Book explained in key points

War! What Is It Good For? summary

Name: War! What Is It Good For?
Rating: 4 (16 reviews)
Author: Ian Morris

Ian Morris

Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots

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What is War! What Is It Good For? about?

War! What Is It Good For? takes a look at the history of conflict and comes to a startling conclusion: while wars are horrible for those who endure them, postbellum societies enjoy the positive consequences of war, namely peace, prosperity and organization.

About the Author

Ian Morris is a British historian, archaeologist and Stanford professor who has written a number of critically acclaimed books, such as Why the West Rules – For Now and The Measure of Civilization.

Table of Contents

Key idea 1 of 8

War brings new technological innovations.

Death. Destruction. Desperation. These are among the things that war brings us. How then could anyone consider war to be anything other than pure hell?

It’s easy to look at the bad at the expense of the good. For example, while war has brought incalculable misery to millions of people, it is also deeply connected with innovation.

Indeed, military needs are directly responsible for some of humanity’s most important innovations.

One way to win the upper hand in a war is by gaining a technological advantage. Throughout history, military technological advancements have equated to the end of war, to victory, and to continued innovation, based on the technology first created for wartime purposes.

Practical things, like bronze and iron, are the results of military research. Iron, for example, was invented very early in human history, and in 1200 B.C. technology made it possible to produce iron in larger quantities.

Its mass production and wide distribution resulted not from civilian application, but because it was a better material for weapons and armor than bronze.

What’s more, many basic inventions and ideas underwent further development as a result of war. These ideas, originally developed for other purposes, were propagated and expanded upon as a result of their wartime application.

Gunpowder, for example, was invented by Chinese alchemists and first used only for small fireworks. It was when the military picked it up that new and better recipes were developed.

Competition among warring nations spins off constantly evolving technologies.

For example, when large ships were employed to transport valuable goods, rival nations and pirates developed smaller, quicker ships to rob the traders. This in turn led to the creation of even larger and better armed trading ships, which led to even faster rival ships, and so on.

While technologies made with noble intentions find ignoble applications in war, the opposite holds true as well.

Productive wars create large empires.

Wars don’t just produce novelties, such as gunpowder. Sometimes their developments are much larger. In productive wars, entire nations and states can be erected, which eventually lead to more stable societies with less violence and more trade.

Human history is full of conflicts that favored larger groups. When we abandoned our hunter-gatherer traditions in favor of settled agriculture, we began inhabiting well-defined territory. Soon good farmland became a rarity, and our growing population was forced to fight over resources.

War is the only way to join societies together.

With all the death and destruction brought by war, we have to wonder if there could have been another way to achieve progress, without all the bloodshed. Sadly, no.

In fact, violence and war are rooted deep in our nature. Our close biological relatives act with extreme violence. Groups of chimpanzees in Central Africa, for example, regularly use violence against rival groups to secure resources and territory, thus suggesting that violence is deeply embedded in our DNA.

War forces states to get organized.

War has yet another, more subtle societal benefit: it forces states and leaders to improve their organization and administration.

Professional armies require large amounts of funds, which can only be raised by well-organized states. For a state to raise money via taxation, for example, it must first have a functioning bureaucracy, that creates and runs complex governing organizations.

A big and organized state causes violence to fall.

We’ve seen the effects that war has on the organization of nations and states. But how does war affect the people who actually live within the nations’ borders? How can war be good for the people?

Nations and states use violence to ensure safe roads and prosperous trading. Consider, for example, that one of the biggest sources of wealth and tax revenue is trade. Thus, it’s in states’ best interests to maintain peace and order for undisturbed commerce.

There are forms of counter-productive war, but in the long run, war is productive.

The most obvious objection to the previous blinks is that not all wars are productive. Just look at World War II, which resulted in the deaths of 50 to 80 million people.

Looking further back in history, specifically from 200 to 1400 A.D., there was a huge cycle of productive and counter-productive wars, i.e., wars that inhibited growth or stability.

On the whole, violence is decreasing.

We’ve shown why war is good in theory, but do these claims measure up to hard facts?

All in all, violence has been declining. In 1250 an average of one out of every 100 people died a violent death. By 1590 it was down to one in 300, and in 1950 in was one in 3,000.

It’s possible that the future will be one free of war.

All this talk of war leaves us wondering what the future of war will look like. However, it’s possible that war will eventually be nothing more than a distant memory.

At least in part, the abolition of war could be brought about by new technological inventions. Some computer experts believe that in the future it’s possible – and perhaps inevitable – that we will upload our minds to computers and virtually link them together, thus creating one huge superorganism.

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Who should read War! What Is It Good For?

Anyone interested in the history of war and great empires
Anyone interested in politics and conflict management
Pacifists and war hawks

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War! What Is It Good For? summary

Listen to the first key idea

What is War! What Is It Good For? about?

About the Author

War brings new technological innovations.

Productive wars create large empires.

War is the only way to join societies together.

War forces states to get organized.

A big and organized state causes violence to fall.

There are forms of counter-productive war, but in the long run, war is productive.

On the whole, violence is decreasing.

It’s possible that the future will be one free of war.

Key ideas in War! What Is It Good For?

War brings new technological innovations.

Productive wars create large empires.

War is the only way to join societies together.

War forces states to get organized.

A big and organized state causes violence to fall.

There are forms of counter-productive war, but in the long run, war is productive.

On the whole, violence is decreasing.

It’s possible that the future will be one free of war.

Who should read War! What Is It Good For?

Categories with War! What Is It Good For?

Books like War! What Is It Good For?

What our members say

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