Buy used: $5.88

FREE delivery November 21 - 25. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Great Buy Book Outlet

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Barbara Ehrenreich

Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War Paperback – May 15, 1998

by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)

68 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$2.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$20.98

$16.50

$2.49

Paperback

"Please retry"

$14.39

$9.75

$8.46

Paperback, May 15, 1998

$5.88

$11.00

$1.90

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$20.31

—

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

View Kindle Edition

An ALA Notable Book
A New York Times Notable Book

In Blood Rites, Barbara Ehrenreich confronts the mystery of the human attraction to violence: What draws our species to war and even makes us see it as a kind of sacred undertaking? Blood Rites takes us on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of twentieth-century "total war." Sifting through the fragile records of prehistory, Ehrenreich discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place--not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species but in the blood rites early humans performed to reenact their terrifying experience of predation by stronger carnivores. Brilliant in conception, rich in scope, Blood Rites is a monumental work that will transform our understanding of the greatest single threat to human life.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Holt Paperbacks
Publication date

May 15, 1998
Dimensions

6 x 0.79 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0805057870
ISBN-13

978-0805057874
See all details

Barbara Ehrenreich
526
Paperback
93 offers from $2.06
Barbara Ehrenreich
86
Paperback
54 offers from $4.16
Barbara Ehrenreich
73
Paperback
51 offers from $8.15
Barbara Ehrenreich
329
Paperback
92 offers from $1.46
Barbara Ehrenreich
99
Paperback
64 offers from $7.99
Barbara Ehrenreich
828
Paperback
31 offers from $4.18

Barbara Ehrenreich
526
Paperback
93 offers from $2.06
Barbara Ehrenreich
73
Paperback
51 offers from $8.15
Barbara Ehrenreich
86
Paperback
54 offers from $4.16
Barbara Ehrenreich
329
Paperback
92 offers from $1.46
Barbara Ehrenreich
828
Paperback
31 offers from $4.18
Barbara Ehrenreich
99
Paperback
64 offers from $7.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ehrenreich has outdone herself in breaking with conventional history, and the result is thrilling in that seeing-the-world-anew way.” ―Susan Faludi, The Nation

“Splendid . . . .A fascinating perspective on our staunch devotion to mass, mutual slaughter. Blood Rites is that rare animal, a nonfiction page-turner.” ―Newsweek

About the Author

Barbara Ehrenreich is the bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch, Bright-sided, This Land Is Their Land, and Dancing in the Streets, among others. A frequent contributor to Harper's and The Nation, she has also been a columnist at The New York Times and Time magazine. She is the winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize for Current Interest and ALA Notable Books for Nonfiction.

Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, when it was still a bustling mining town. She studied physics at Reed College, and earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rockefeller University. Rather than going into laboratory work, she got involved in activism, and soon devoted herself to writing her innovative journalism. She lives and works in Florida.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Holt Paperbacks (May 15, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0805057870
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805057874
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.79 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,825,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,447 in Violence in Society (Books)
- #72,848 in Military History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
68 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Barbara Ehrenreich

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

BARBARA EHRENREICH is the author of fourteen books, including the bestselling Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She lives in Virginia, USA.

Customer reviews

5 star		69%
4 star		12%
3 star		14%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Terry Foster

How War Began

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

This an excellent book on how war began with humans and has become embedded in the human psyche. A must read by an excellent researcher and writer. It is a lost to our society her passing.

Tery Foster

One person found this helpful

Helpful

James E. Lane

Eherenrich nails it again

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

So let me get this straight: At first, men and women gather fruits and vegetables to eat. All is well except that from time to time, an animal kills one for food. So the humans tremble in fear. Then one man says to the other men, "Let's get together and become the predators. Then we won't have to fear them. And if we taste good to them, they might taste good to us. However, one objects: what about the women? The genius who concocted this idea (and thus discovered reason in the process) responds: Tell them we're working late at the office. The others say, "Perfect." They all marvel at their newfound reason and ability to plan things. They give each other the high sign. And so begins human history.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Cynthia Sally Haggard

A provocative account of the origins of war

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 8, 2012

Verified Purchase

Barbara Ehrenreich's BLOOD RITES is an investigation into the origins of war. Drawing parallels between ancient religions with their blood-soaked rituals, and the fact that for thousands of years a small band of humans had to ward off predators in the shape of tigers, lions and wolves, all without the arsenal of weapons that we have today, Ms. Ehrenreich tries to fill in a picture of the psychology of war. She makes the radical proposal that those ancient deities that demanded their blood-soaked sacrifices could be equated with predatory mammals looking to snack on human flesh.

The only effective weapon that ancient men and women had to fight with was fire. We know that the use of fire is very ancient because hearths dating back 750,000 years have been found in Israel. But the use of fire may have had less to do with keeping warm, than with keeping predators at bay. Images of rings of fire that abound in stories and operas (I'm thinking here of the ring of fire that Wotan uses to protect his sleeping daughter Brunnhilde), may have originated in the use of fire as a kind of fence around an encampment to protect the humans within.

Eventually, humans acquired better equipment in the shape of horses and arrows that meant that they could protect themselves far more efficiently from the big cats. Ms. Ehrenreich's basic argument is that when humans made the gigantic leap from prey to predator, the "underemployed" males of the tribe, whose job it had been to fight off the predators, needed something new to do in order to channel their energies. That new something turned out to be war.

I do not know if Ms. Ehrenreich is right about this. But I think she is right to point out that there is much more to war than killing people, even though that is its salient feature. Now that I think about it, there is a religious quality about war, that is unexpected. After all, you do not expect sanctioned murder to be religious in nature. But it is striking that down through the ages, masses, sacrifices, libations and other religious acts have been performed before a battle has started.

If you are interested in a provocative discussion about war, read this book. Four stars.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael Tsarion

FAIL - ATTACK ON MEN AHEAD

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

Men in this book are nothing more than killers of men, women and animals. That's it folks. The book mulls over what Neolithic and Post-Neolithic man does when he's not able to slaughter big animals for food and sport.

Well, it's easy. Indulge in war and more war. This and nothing more is the author's take. Not one word anywhere of any other cultural achievement by men.

And also, no mention of any tenable alternative theory for aggression in males. No psychology to speak of and nothing but the exaltation of women in almost all cases and senses. Talk about a writer who protests too much. Too bad Mrs. Ehrenreich misses the barn door by quite a way. She doesn't see that the main cause of war is woman.

I guess that's taboo for her and most people. Best to avoid the matter altogether.

The causes of war lie in emotional trauma and the limited channels of exorcism traumatized types need if sanity is to be maintained or restored.

The chief agent of emotional (and physical) trauma in the life of any boy or girl is the mother. War and aggression are, therefore, caused by Matrophpbia - hatred toward the "Terrible Mother."

Since this cache of rage is difficult if not impossible to alleviate, it builds to critical levels. All forms of social violence can be traced to this syndrome. It is the underlying reason for sado-mascohistic behavior and outlooks.

When an infant discovers that the source of all it needs to survive and grow isn't necessarily good, caring, noble or moral, and that its mother can in fact be indifferent, cruel, oppressive, hypocritical and violent, consciousness is deeply shocked, disturbed and confused. All that one believes is good and noble is now seen as ambivalent and untrustworthy, and one blames oneself for being victimized by such an immoral being. One blames oneself for needing and loving the Terrible Mother. The disease of psychophobia has been contracted, the dire condition no on wants to speak about.

One beats oneself up for needing a mother who not only gives what is required, but all too often withholds what is required. This self-hate or autophobia is the chief cause of a person's hostility toward themselves and other people in the world, and the syndrome has not date on it. It's been there from day and year one.

Other supposed causes of conflict and war exist mostly by way of sublimation and displacement. We must not rule them out, but we must also face the unfaceable if violence is to cease. No man who is not pathologically irritated and disturbed in his deep mind and body goes out to witlessly attack or slaughter anyone.

There's more to the sad tale that this, but it amazes me that so much can be thought and written and still so little known about the problems of Matrophobia and Adultism and their vile consequences.

*** *** ***

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

AK

Not Ehrenreich's finest - an intriguing first part followed by a mediocre application of the theory

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

Unlike Ehrenreich's later more famous books, such as Nickel and Dimed or Bait and Switch: The Futile Pursuit of the Corporate Dream , Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War is not based on the author's own first hand experience but is exclusively based on desk research.

The main premise - that our warlike passions stem from our ancient fear of being the prey of the larger and stronger predators that roamed the plains together with prehistoric man - is certainly intriguing. There is plenty of anecdotal support for the possibility both from ancient literature and more modern sociological writing that Ehrenreich brings to bear when developing the theme.

It is hardly a scientific treatise, as it does not compare the theory developed to alternative ones, so one can find it intuitively appealing and like it but it will remain difficult to make an informed choice on whether the theory offers better explanatory power than alternatives, unless you are already an expert in the field. For that part alone, the book deserves 4 stars in my opinion, as it is at least interesting, and it brings some fresh perspectives (and interesting historical trivia) to bear.

Where the book starts unravelling in my opinion is the second part, which purports to apply the prey theory to war. Anyone reasonably familiar with existing explanations of human predatory instincts as well as the difficulties most people have in killing (unless operatively conditioned to do so), will have an extremely hard time swallowing the generalizations and extremely selective view the author presents. Introducing Dawkins' 'Memetics' a handful of pages before the end also does the book no favours, as it seems more of an afterthought than a fully developed explanatory route. On top, I found the weaving in of the theory from the first part often not particularly natural - as if the author wrote two separate books and then found herself encouraged to bind the two together.

In terms of individual motivations and blockages to war and killing, Grossman's On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society is a much better book. It provides the more in-depth and much better argued research on the topic and disproves many of the statements on the development of warfare made by Ehrenreich (with plenty of qualitative and quantitative studies explained and cited supporting the arguments). In terms of societal development and the use of warfare in this context, Diamond is in my opinion the much better guide - Guns Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies or Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed both being quite insightful, and certaily better developed. For a brief but much more correct history on the use of small versus large forces, and professionals versus conscripts, the introduction to Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) is another good start.

Overall this is the weakest of Ehrenreich's books I have read so far. She certainly invested significant effort into writing it but it falls just short of good due to the poor (and partially ideologically motivated, rather than properly analyzed) second half. If the topic is of general interest, you would do well to go through the first part of the book, in case you want to explore the theory developed further - the author's own application is in my opinion not great.

On the other hand, do not judge the author by this book, as her later work, where she experienced the topics she wrote about first hand, is actually quite good.

10 people found this helpful

Generic Nomenclature

Interesting collection of insights on the brutality of organised humans

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

Having not read any other of the author's works I cannot place this in a wider context, I enjoyed it as it is. Ehrenreich inverts the idea of cultural expression as sublimated violence. Instead of the aggressive ape, Ehrenreich paints a portrait of humanity as prey to forces beyond its control. Our relationship with predators was ambivalent: we needed them for their scavenged kills but knew that we too were vulnerable. At some point, we learned to change this balance but maintained our obsession with The Predator. As cultures developed, the effects of this change stayed with us through ritual, religion, the birth of the nation state and the thread of conflict that runs through these markers.

Ute Knoetgen

Herleitung des Phänomens Krieg aus der Urzeit des Menschen.

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on March 1, 2014

Verified Purchase

Das Buch gibt eine ungewöhnliche Deutung für die Faszination, die alles Blutige für den Menschen hat, so auch der Krieg. Es ist sehr gut recherchiert und übersichtlich gegliedert sowie versehen mit einer umfangreichen Quellenangabe. Im Text keinesfalls trocken, sondern von zahlreichen Beispielen aus der Geschichte und seriösen Originalzitaten aufgelockert. .
Es empfiehlt sich allen Lesern, die ihr Verständnis für die dunkle Seite der Menschheit vertiefen möchten.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

Cliente de Amazon

Very interesting

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on January 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

I bought the book by an Amazon recomendation. At first with doubt. I must read it two times in order to extract most of many of his lessons. Perhaps her central idea is not very well defended but the rest of the book is very well argumented.