The Worth of War
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
Although war is terrible and brutal, history shows that it has been a great driver of human progress. So argues political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg in this incisive, well-researched study of the benefits to civilization derived from armed conflict. Ginsberg makes a convincing case that war selects for and promotes certain features of societies that are generally held to represent progress. These include rationality, technological and economic development, and liberal forms of government.
Contrary to common perceptions that war is the height of irrationality, Ginsberg persuasively demonstrates that in fact it is the ultimate test of rationality. He points out that those societies best able to assess threats from enemies rationally and objectively are usually the survivors of warfare. History also clearly reveals the technological benefits that result from war-ranging from the sundial to nuclear power. And in regard to economics, preparation for war often spurs on economic development; by the same token, nations with economic clout in peacetime usually have a huge advantage in times of war. Finally, war and the threat of war have encouraged governments to become more congenial to the needs and wants of their citizens because of the increasing reliance of governments on their citizens' full cooperation in times of war.
However deplorable the realities of war are, the many fascinating examples and astute analysis in this thought-provoking book will make readers reconsider the unmistakable connection between war and progress.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"At the risk of being excommunicated from the faculty club," Ginsberg, director of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, gives an unexpected answer to the question "War! What is it good for?" He proposes four ways in which war encourages significant elements of human progress. First and arguably most surprising war is an "agent of rationality." States that practiced "magical thinking" suffered disaster, while those able to "rationalize authority" from the Aztecs and the Mayas to the Third Reich moved toward a more modern world. War was also central to the development and diffusion of technology through "conquest, imitation, and civil-military technology transfer." Ginsberg offers another unconventional judgment when he concludes that wars diminish government brutality: subjects become citizens; citizens become consumers of war-induced production. During WWII, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. both learned the links between "warfare and welfare," voluntary participation, and victory. Finally, Ginsberg argues, war "has served as a great spur to economic development," as economic strength tends to be a consequence of military power to a point where administrative and coercive capacities can be turned inward: swords beaten into "malign plowshares." Ginsberg's work is certain to stir controversy particularly his conception of "human progress."
