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On the Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace Paperback – January 1, 1996

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 112 ratings

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A brilliant and vitally important history of why states go to war, by the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Peloponnesian War

War has been a fact of life for centuries. By lucidly revealing the common threads that connect the ancient confrontations between Athens and Sparta and between Rome and Carthage with the two calamitous World Wars of the twentieth century, renowned historian Donald Kagan reveals new and surprising insights into the nature of war and peace. Vivid, incisive, and accessible, Kagan's powerful narrative warns against complacency and urgently reminds us of the importance of preparedness in times of peace.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Donald Kagan's On the Origins of War

“A particularly timely masterpiece . . . brilliantly examines the origins of four major, devastating conflicts.”—
Los Angeles
 
“Humane and penetrating . . . Kagan shows how, tragically, measures undertaken precisely to prevent war have in the past repeatedly brought it closer.”—
The New Criterion
 
“By now it is all too clear that the so-called end of history really has meant the return of history, with a vengeance. Recent events regrettably confirm that warfare is inherent to any system of world affair yet imagined, so we better do all we can to prevent it. Professor Kagan's impressive volume presents thoughts that are timely, intellectually deep, and just about indispensable.”—George P. Schultz, Former U.S. Secretary of State

About the Author

Donald Kagan is Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University. A former dean of Yale College, he received his Ph.D. in 1958 from The Ohio State University. His publications include On the Origins of War and the Preservation of PeaceThe Peloponnesian War, and Thucydides: The Reinvention of History. In 2002 he was the recipient of the National Humanities Medal and in 2005 was named the National Endowment for the Humanities Jefferson Lecturer.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor (January 1, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 624 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385423756
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385423755
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 1 year and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 1.3 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 112 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
112 global ratings
This book is amazing. The Kindle version is horrible.
2 out of 5 stars
This book is amazing. The Kindle version is horrible.
This is a fantastic book, came highly recommended and didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed it so much that I put up with probably the worst Kindle transcription I’ve ever seen. Letters are poorly scanned (ex: Bullow becomes Biilow, but only sometimes), footnotes are impossible to read, the page numbers and book titles were obviously scanned into the general text and so they come up every couple of kindle pages right in the middle of the text, quotes are frequently hard to piece together, and sometimes sentences simply end halfway through and you have to piece together what was meant from context.Get the paperback. The book is very solid. The kindle version is borderline unreadable and probably shouldn’t even be on the market.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2004
Kagan wrote this the same year that bin Laden declared war on Western civilization with his fatwa to kill the infidel no matter where he finds him. This is a wonderful book to understand the history of mankind's desire to avoid war at any cost, even when it means that the consequences of doing so means that millions will die in the pursuit of peace.
Whether it is Chamberlain's claim that he had delivered "peace in our time" in his appeasement of a madman by the name of Hitler, or Kennedy's encouragement of Soviet aggression by his incredible weakness in dealing with a Khrushchev who saw him for the phony weakling that he was, this book drives home the fact that the bad guys will win if the good guys don't stand up.
Robert Kagan obviously learned a lesson in writing "Paradise and Power" versus this book by Donald Kagan by cutting to the chase and understanding that the attention span of most Americans is the average length of a sitcom. If you want to understand why we have to keep learning history's lessons generation after generation, this is the book to buy. The peace movement is responsible for the deaths of more humans than any of the tyrants who filled the gas chambers, launched the bombs, starved the innocents, or invaded their neighbors. Kagan does a great job of showing how this has been the case since recorded history, and unfortunately we are too illiterate to understand this in an era when terrorists are identified by some euphemism like "freedom fighter" or dissident.
This book should be mandatory reading for any teenager in high school as an alternative to the politically correct nonsense that they are graded on and forced to read in schools across the country. Not to mention those who sit in their lounge chairs watching such inanities as "Friends" or equally idiotic nonsense.
This is a great book, but not a one day read if you pay close attention to the massive research and detai it encompasses. Hopefully this will be condensed into something that is more approachable by the average reader.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2016
A thoughtful well written piece of historical analysis. The author use five case studies on wars that started or in the case of the Cuban missile crisis did not start as the basis of his study. He also provides a short introduction to each case study for those unfamiliar with the historical event. If you are rushed for time his intro and conclusion do a good job of presenting his conclusions, basically peace is not free and one must work at it to allow peace to continue. Dr Kagan does not play favorites and even such modern day hero's as Churchill and such ancient ones as Pericles (and my personal favorite Alcibiades) come in for some share of criticism. He wrote late enough that many of the "secret" files from the Cuban missile crisis were in the public domain and we get a chance to see early on the falsehoods presented to Congress and the American people by the likes of McNamara and Rusk. A good example that even with all the supposed elements of power to maintain peace lousy leaders can make a difference.
I read the paperback version of this book and there were a couple of printing errors (a small portion of one page was blanked out) Also I like a lot of maps and found myself following along on internet maps at times during the reading. For those of you who have attended military schools you will find the format very much like that used at the academies and war colleges.
The book is well worth the time to read (as are Dr Kagan's works on the Peloponnesian War).
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2011
I really respect the author Prof. Kagan and feel he is one of the best modern historians in regards to the ancient classical world.

The book is generally very good and I learned a lot from reading it.

The book first juxtaposes the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens to the more recent conflict of World War 1 comparing Britain and Germany. This is not a linear comparison where one nation is like a corresponding one from the other conflict, but instead how aspects of the conflict make the modern nations comparable to one of the nations in certain aspects and to the other in other aspects.

The book then juxtaposes the Second Punic War to the Second World War. Here the comparison is a little more linear, but still not a straight forward one modern nation is analogous to one ancient nation.

The book then discusses the Cuban missile crisis and uses ideas discussed from the other sections of the book to explain why the events took the course they did.

Overall a good book.

However there are two faults:
1. The sections become way out of balance when the ancient wars get kind of a quick over view and then the text becomes bogged down in the fine details of the modern war. A little more info on the ancient and a little more discussion comparing the ancient and modern conflicts would have helped.
2. The book feels a little incomplete from its over all ending conclusion. You can definitely draw conclusions from it, I just wish the author discussed his philosophical views and reasons for them a little bit more.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Matt
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2023
A very well thought out and written book discussing the events leading up to 5 major military events (four wars and a cold war). Highly recommended.
FILIPPO DE GALLEANI
5.0 out of 5 stars ha soddisfatto le mie aspettative
Reviewed in Italy on January 18, 2022
tutto a posto
ジョン ホドソン
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid ideas for half of the wars selected
Reviewed in Japan on July 18, 2023
The conclusion is what I probably would have liked more of. There is some wonderful research here, and the conclusions drawn are - albeit not happy - piercing.

The world wars are dealt with in a lot of detail. In comparison, the second Punic war and the war between Sparta and Athens feels far sparser on details and light on analysis. I appreciate there is more fodder to chew on for the more modern wars, but to try and use the older wars for reference points when their page counts are so starkly lacking compared to the 21st century wars is not very inspiring.

However, the Cuban Crisis has plenty of interesting snippets and research I had no idea of. Interesting to see Kennedy portrayed in such a way to be very reminiscent of Chamberlain.
G H M Pope
5.0 out of 5 stars Prepare for war but keep the peace.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2015
A great book analysing the attitudes and miscalculations that eventually result in war. Every politician should read it and every politician should read it to understand that the sad fact of history is that disarmament or even strong calls for disarmament almost certainly encourage war. Humans compete for power and war is the final solution for achieveing it. It just needs the dominoes to fall.
2 people found this helpful
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Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the lesser Donald Kagan titles. Still worth reading.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2018
As stated by the author himself, he's not an expert in every period he delves into in this book. Still, comparing the old world with the new is always interesting and Donald Kagan has more insight to share than most people.
One person found this helpful
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