Synopses & Reviews
A unique, multi-authored social history of war from the third millennium < font="" size="-1">
Review
I>War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval World
Review
Thucydides and his contemporaries knew war from bitter experience. Peace to them was an illusion, war the true constant...War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval World shows how and why Thucydides's vision prevailed throughout pre-industrial times in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Because of the omnipresence of war or its specter within ancient Greek--and Roman--culture, editors Kurt Raaflaub and Nathan Rosenstein recognize the real need to explore in theoretical terms how war (including military technology and organization) affected ancient society (including economic and political systems) and vice versa. Thomas Palaima
Review
The editors have sought to produce a book about the social history of war in the pre-industrial age. They have encouraged their contributors to write not about army organization, battles, tactics, and so on, but about the social and political context of war, and about the interrelationship between war and the institutional structures of the various states which are surveyed. The result...is a volume of broad scope with much potential for comparison and cross-fertilization. It certainly comes across as a work of solid scholarship and interesting insights which should appeal to a wide audience. Times Higher Education Supplement
Synopsis
This volume is a unique, multi-authored social history of war from the third millennium b.c.e. to the tenth century c.e. in the Mediterranean, the Near East, and Europe with parallel studies of Mesoamerica and East Asia. The product of a colloquium at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies, this book offers a broadly based, comparative examination of war and military organization in their complex interactions with social, economic, and political structures as well as cultural practices.
Synopsis
This volume is a unique, multi-authored social history of war from the third millennium B.C.E. to the tenth century C.E. in the Mediterranean, the Near East, and Europe (Egypt, Achaemenid Persia, Greece, the Hellenistic World, the Roman Republic and Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the early Islamic World, and early Medieval Europe), with parallel studies of Mesoamerica (the Maya and Aztecs) and East Asia (ancient China, medieval Japan). The product of a colloquium at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies, this volume offers a broadly based, comparative examination of war and military organization in their complex interactions with social, economic, and political structures as well as cultural practices.
About the Author
Kurt A. Raaflaub is Professor of Classics and History at Brown University, and Joint Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C..Nathan Rosenstein is Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University.William Wayne Farris is Professor of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.John Haldon is Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University.Robin D. S. Yates is Assistant Professor of Chinese History, Harvard University.
McGill University
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Introduction
Kurt Raaflaub and Nathan Rosenstein
2. Early China
Robin D. S. Yates
3. Japan to 1300
W. Wayne Farris
4. Ancient Egypt
Andrea M. Gnirs
5. The Achaemenid Empire
Pierre Briant
6. Archaic and Classical Greece
Kurt Raaflaub
7. The Hellenistic World
Charles D. Hamilton
8. Republican Rome
Nathan Rosenstein
9. The Roman Empire
Brian Campbell
10. The Byzantine World
John Haldon
11. Early Medieval Europe
Bernard S. Bachrach
12. The Early Islamic World
Patricia Crone
13. Ancient Maya Warfare
David Webster
14. The Aztec World
Ross Hassig
15. A Paradigm for the Study of War and Society
R. Brian Ferguson
16. Epilogue
Victor Davis Hanson and Barry S. Strauss
The Contributors
Index