War and the Rise of the State (Board book)

~ (Author) "States make war, but war also makes states..." (more)
Key Phrases: mass military service, continental path, tary revolution, Great Britain, United States, Cold War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Porter, a political scientist at Brigham Young University, demonstrates that wars have been catalysts for increasing the size and power of Western governments since the Renaissance. The state's monopoly of effective violence has diminished not only individual rights and liberties, but also the ability of local communities and private associates to challenge the centralization of authority. Porter's originality lies in his thesis that war, breaking down barriers of class, gender, ethnicity and ideology, also contributes to meritocracy, mobility, and, above all, democratization. Porter also posits the emergence of the "Scientific Warfare State," a political system in which advanced technology would render obsolete mass participation in war. This provocative study merits wide circulation and serious discussion.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Surveying the past 500 years of Western history, Porter examines the effects that warfare has had on the growth of the centralized state in the West. Although we do not like to admit it, our contemporary society clearly has been shaped by war's effects. In the United States, the demands of fighting the Civil War, two world wars, and the Cold War all influenced the contours of our government and social institutions. Porter voices concerns about the impact that the end of the Cold War will have on the overall cohesiveness of American society. Without the specter of an aggressive USSR, how will our political leaders rally the nation to solve our more intractable and messy domestic problems? Porter is not sanguine about our overcoming the very human trait of using violence to effect change. If we have not learned any lessons from the past, new and awful wars await us in the next century. This fine survey of Western military history is recommended for academic collections emphasizing military and political history.
- Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Board book: 400 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (January 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029250951
• ISBN-13: 978-0029250952
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #945,253 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well argued, May 25, 2005

By	John Hamill (Roanoke, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: War and the Rise of the State (Paperback)

I started reading this book solely to learn about the eighteenth century, but I found it to be so profound and well written that I had to read it al. Everyone who cares about freedom should read this book. Among the first sentences Porter says that like many people, when he first started to study history he found wars to be an annoying interruption of progress, but that he grew to appreciate that after each war the world was somehow different. The how and why are the subject of the book. Porter shows how war and the need to pay for war has led to increasing state power and larger government. Porter shows that in most European states kings used war to quash representative government, but he also shows the exceptions - Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Britain, and America. Porter shows how different circumstances in these countries helped lead to representative government of some kind. The 20th century tyrannies of fascism and communism and the rise of the welfare state are also convincing explained.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wars make peacetime government bigger, January 6, 1999

By A Customer

Porter's work is remarkable in both content and readibility. It is an upbeat reply to those who bemoan the general irrelevancy of the Beltway players during these times of peace and prosperity. Furthermore, it clearly documents how much the federal government undergoes growth spurts both during and immediately following the nation's wars. (Clinton himself [as unbelievably egotistical and scary as this may seem] has been quoted lamenting the fact that he is not a wartime President.) This is a book that ought to be read by every public policy wonk who values truth in the slightest... and it's one to be enjoyed by almost anyone who has an interest in America's past and future.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice Idea, Poor Development, March 5, 2001

By	"poli_sci_man" (Conway, AR USA) - See all my reviews

Porter provides a nice correlation between warfare and the rise of the nation state. However many of the ideas that he presents do not really come together well. He provides plenty of evidence but does a poor job of pulling it all into a coherent theme. It definitely gets you thinking about the role war played in increasing the power of the state. It does leave many questions. Its worth a shot for the politically astute.