Barbed Wire: A Political History [Paperback]

Olivier Razac (Author), Jonathan Kneight (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2003

From the devil's rope to no man's land, "a vital work of cultural criticism" (Publishers Weekly).

No less than the internal combustion engine, the transistor, or the silicon chip, barbed wire is a quintessentially modern invention, a product that has influenced the lives of millions of people across the globe since its invention in the late nineteenth century. Barbed Wire: A Political History demonstrates that the invention of barbed wire was a major breakthrough with far-reaching consequences. Cheap and mass-produced, barbed wire accomplished what no other product did before it, or has since done more effectively: the control of vast amounts of open space.

Razac describes how barbed wire has been employed in the harnessing of nature, brutal mass warfare, political conquest and repression, and genocide. In a narrative that spans the history of the American Frontier, the trenches of World War I, the Holocaust, and beyond, Barbed Wire: A Political History looks unflinchingly at a central and fascinating strand of modern life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Barbed wire excludes and includes. Its function is always to magnify the difference between the inside and the outside, writes historian and philosopher Razac in his brief but startling study of an emblematic innovation. First introduced in 1874 as an inexpensive means of fencing off U.S. prairie land, barbed wire quickly became not only a way to manage livestock but a means to contain Native Americans on reservations. Because of its mobility, low cost and extreme effectiveness, barbed wire was transformed literally and metaphorically into a staple of social regulation. Arguing that barbed wire is the political management of space, Razac traces how it radicalized trench warfare during WWI (making trenches safer, but rendering the battle field far more dangerous) and, electrified, literally defined the space of Nazi concentration camps (later, it became the symbol of the worst catastrophe of the century). Used for more than just imprisonment or physical separation, barbed wire, Razac says, helped make men's deaths... indistinguishable from their humiliation and their dehumanization. While he uses the American West, trench warfare and concentration camps as his most salient examples of the effect that barbed wire had on contemporary life and imagination, he also considers its brutal, authoritarian uses by the Allies in Japanese POW camps and in refugee camps from the Middle East to Kosovar. The simplicity and clarity of Razac's prose reinforces the enormous power and originality of his ideas, making this a vital work of cultural criticism. B&w photos.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

According to French philosopher Razac, barbed wire has had consequences far beyond the Great Plains, where it was invented in 1874. Although he footnotes the standard history of the subject Henry D. McCallum and Frances T. McCallum's The Wire That Won the West (1965) his book is not intended as a reinterpretation or revision of that work. Instead, Razac spends much of his book focusing on three historical "landmarks" or "disasters" whose relationship to barbed wire cannot be ignored: He begins with white settlement on the plains and the resulting decimation of Native American tribes. Razac then moves to the trenches of World War I, where barbed wire contributed to the mass slaughter of men on the front lines. The third major landmark associated with barbed wire is the Holocaust and its concentration and death camps. What follows is a long philosophical essay on the political meaning of barbed wire. Unfortunately, Razac's argument falls short, failing to explain how barbed wire helped cause these major catastrophes. The best he can do is discuss the wire's symbolism. While sections covering the world wars are quite adequate, those on U.S. history, including Native Americans, contain errors and are embarrassingly simplistic. Razac tends to ramble, use excessive jargon, and coin his own complex terminology. The many interesting photographs only accentuate the text's lack of substantive historical content. An optional purchase. Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (July 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565848128
• ISBN-13: 978-1565848122
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #841,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than A Fence, October 18, 2002

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barbed Wire: A Political History (Hardcover)

Amnesty International is an organization which concerns itself with those imprisoned not because of crimes, but because of politics. For a symbol, Amnesty has a burning candle, a token of hope, enclosed by loops of barbed wire. The meaning is conveyed instantaneously. Barbed wire is easy to draw; since it is such a simple device with a simple design, only a few lines suffice to make a convincing picture. Readily identifiable, barbed wire means to us prison and enclosure. To Olivier Razac, author of _Barbed Wire: A Political History_ (New Press; translated from the French by Jonathan Kneight), it means a great deal more. His revelatory little book is actually a long, illustrated essay to show how from a ranching tool, barbed wire has come a long way as a tool for brutality and repression.

_Barbed Wire_ is not a history of the subject, but of course it is necessary to mention its origin. It is perhaps ironic that barbed wire had its beginning in the open prairie of the land of the free. J. F. Glidden was a farmer who invented barb wire for plains farmers who needed a cheap means of fencing in their land. Even as an invention for cattle control, barbed wire could not help but affect humans, and in unexpected ways. It ended the classic cattle drive, putting out of work most of the cowboys who have loomed large in American mythology. They may have lost their jobs, but the American Indians lost their culture, and it can be seen as a weapon against the indigenous peoples. Barbed wire proved a useful weapon in subsequent battles. Landscapes of World War One featured trenches supplemented with rows of the stuff. It was easy enough to cut with simple shears, but of course you had to get close enough to do so. Land torpedoes, nicknamed "wood lice" or "Schneider crocodiles" were invented to tunnel in and blow the wires up. The best way to neutralize barbed wire was to blow it up with cannon fire, but when tanks arrived, ramparts and bunkers became important again. It was the Nazis who made barbed wire a staple to represent their cold and brutal regime. Its eternal advantages, cheapness, simplicity, and easy installation, made it indispensable. When they built a concentration camp, it was the fence that went up first. In the camps, barbed wire achieved the severest example of what Razac convinces us is its use in "the political management of space." It became "the symbol of the worst catastrophe of the century." It is still used in Palestinian refugee camps, of course, and our government would rather not show the wire all over Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Of course, barbed wire can be found atop fences surrounding factories or prisons, and we do not find this use politically oppressive. Other uses of the wire within open democracies, Razac argues, have disappeared, because spaces needing control are now being watched by guards, video monitors, and electronic gates, some of which carry an Orwellian aura, but none of which have the immediate fearsome aspect of simple twisted and sharpened wire. Razac's slim book exposes plenty of history within a commonplace object, one that those who complete the book will not see in the same way again.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening critique of a simple invention!, July 28, 2002

By 

D. Bakken "dobak" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barbed Wire: A Political History (Hardcover)

The book is rather short. Therefore, it focuses on only three aspects of barbed wire - The trenches of WWI, The concentration camps of the Nazis during WWII, and the use of barbed wire by American ranchers during the mid/late 1800's, ending the roaming ways of the Native Americans.

There is alot to say about the book, but the book says it best. So I'll sum it up - barbed wire is one of the most overlooked inventions of death during the last 200 years.

Highly Recommended!