Civil Wars : A History in Ideas

Resumen del libro

A highly original history of the least understood and most intractable form of organised human aggression, from ancient Rome to our present conflict-ridden world We think we know civil war when we see it. Yet ideas of what it is, and isn't, have a long and contested history. Defining the term is acutely political, for ideas about what makes a war "civil" often depend on whether one is ruler or rebel, victor or vanquished, sufferer or outsider; it can also shape a conflict's outcome, determining whether external powers are involved or stand aside.

From the American Revolution to the Iraq war, pivotal decisions have hung on such shifts of perspective. The West's age of civil war may be over, but elsewhere it has exploded - from the Balkans to Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Sri Lanka and, most recently, Syria. And the language of civil war has burgeoned as democratic politics has become more violently fought.

This book's unique perspective on the roots, dynamics and shaping force of civil war will be essential to our ongoing struggles with this seemingly interminable problem.

Biografía del autor

David Armitage es profesor de Historia del Pensamiento Político e Historia Mundial en la Universidad de Harvard. También es profesor honorario de las universidades de Cambridge y Sydney. Es miembro correspondiente de la Real Academia de la Historia española, además de la australiana y la de Edimburgo. Autor de casi una veintena de obras, en Alianza Editorial está publicado su anterior libro, " Manifiesto por la Historia " , del que es coautor con Jo Guldi.