If only there were more scholarslike this!'Michael Howard, TLS Books of the Year, 'A towering and triumphant achievement. its weight of learning is borne aloft by the author's enthusiasm for his subject and takes his readers with it. Lieber, Georgetown University, 'An immensely ambitious work covering not only history but archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, demography and economics, to name but a few. Gat definitively unravels the riddle of civilization and war.'Professor Robert J.

'A work of extraordinary scope and formidable erudition. Written with remarkable verve and clarity and wholly free from jargon, it will be of interest to anyone who has ever pondered the puzzle of war.

In the process, the book generates an astonishing wealth of original and fascinating insights on all major aspects of humankind's remarkable journey through the ages, engaging a wide range of disciplines, from anthropology and evolutionary psychology to sociology and political science.

Why do people go to war? Is it rooted in human nature or is it a late cultural invention? How does war relate to the other fundamental developments in the history of human civilization? And what of war today - is it a declining phenomenon or simply changing its shape? In this truly global study of war and civilization, Azar Gat sets out to find definitive answers to these questions in an attempt to unravel the 'riddle of war' throughout human history, from the early hunter-gatherers right through to the unconventional terrorism of the twenty-first century.

War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat