Synopses & Reviews
The Bloody Hostilities, Feuds, and Quarrels that Refuse to Release their Grip.
Sometimes the causes of war are so intractable, the opponents so unyielding, and the rivalries so deep-rooted that the combat continues for years, decades, even centuries. And often when it does abate, the resentments still smolder, so that the slightest spark might reignite the conflagration.
An at once captivating and unsettling volume, Why Some Wars Never End shines a spotlight on fourteen of history’s longest-running conflicts. They range from the almost century-long Punic Wars, which saw ancient Rome achieve dominance over the Mediterranean and lay the foundations of its world-changing empire, to the seventy years of uprisings and bloody encounters that triggered the Jewish Diaspora in the second century CE, to the nineteenth-century Seminole Wars, which virtually wiped out the Seminole Indians, to the violent British suppression of Afghan self-rule that set the stage for that nation’s distressing contemporary plight.
Each of these wars had consequences and influences far beyond its source and the reach of its battles, not only redrawing political boundaries, but also coloring the worldview of generations of participants and bystanders, and thereby refashioning entire cultures. And all demonstrate, in harrowing fashion, why violence still stains our modern world, and why warfare shows no sign of ending any time soon.
Synopsis
In a celebrated calculation, the Swiss historian Jean-Jacques Babel estimated that in approximately 5,500 years of documented history, the world has known a meager 292 years of peace. Whereas war is apparently never ending, we think of individual wars as beginning, spanning a certain number of years, and then ending. In fact, many parts and peoples of the world have experienced virtually endless wars—or, at least, wars of remote origin and long duration, spanning several generations.
This book examines those conflicts, concentrating both on their origin and principal episode or episodes. It goes into depth about why and how these wars continued for as long as they did and what the residual effects were. Fourteen wars are presented in chronological order, in chapters illustrated with archival images gathered from around the world. Some examples are the Persian Wars (449–448 BC), Hundred Years War (1337–1453), the Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1919), to more modern examples like the Guatemala Civil Wars (1960–1996) and the U.S. War on Terrorism (2001–ongoing).
Synopsis
The Bloody Hostilities, Feuds, and Quarrels that Refuse to Release their Grip.
Sometimes the causes of war are so intractable, the opponents so unyielding, and the rivalries so deep-rooted that the combat continues for years, decades, even centuries. And often when it does abate, the resentments still smolder, so that the slightest spark might reignite the conflagration.
An at once captivating and unsettling volume,
Why Some Wars Never End shines a spotlight on fourteen of history s longest-running conflicts. They range from the almost century-long Punic Wars, which saw ancient Rome achieve dominance over the Mediterranean and lay the foundations of its world-changing empire, to the seventy years of uprisings and bloody encounters that triggered the Jewish Diaspora in the second century CE, to the nineteenth-century Seminole Wars, which virtually wiped out the Seminole Indians, to the violent British suppression of Afghan self-rule that set the stage for that nation s distressing contemporary plight.
Each of these wars had consequences and influences far beyond its source and the reach of its battles, not only redrawing political boundaries, but also coloring the worldview of generations of participants and bystanders, and thereby refashioning entire cultures. And all demonstrate, in harrowing fashion, why violence still stains our modern world, and why warfare shows no sign of ending any time soon.
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About the Author
Joseph Cummins is the author of The World’s Bloodiest History, The War Chronicles: From Chariots to Flintlocks, The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns, History’s Greatest Untold Stories, Anything for a Vote: Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots, and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Campaigns, Great Rivals in History: When Politics Gets Personal, and President Obama and a New Birth of Freedom. He has also written a novel, The Snow Train. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.