War! What Is It Good For?: Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots

A powerful and provocative exploration of how war has changed our society—for the better.

“War!. . . . / What is it good for? / Absolutely nothing,” says the famous song—but archaeology, history, and biology show that war in fact has been good for something. Surprising as it sounds, war has made humanity safer and richer.

In War! What Is It Good For?, the renowned historian and archaeologist Ian Morris tells the gruesome, gripping story of fifteen thousand years of war, going beyond the battles and brutality to reveal what war has really done to and for the world. Stone Age people lived in small, feuding societies and stood a one-in-ten or even one-in-five chance of dying violently. In the twentieth century, by contrast—despite two world wars, Hiroshima, and the Holocaust—fewer than one person in a hundred died violently. The explanation: War, and war alone, has created bigger, more complex societies, ruled by governments that have stamped out internal violence. Strangely enough, killing has made the world safer, and the safety it has produced has allowed people to make the world richer too.

War has been history’s greatest paradox, but this searching study of fifteen thousand years of violence suggests that the next half century is going to be the most dangerous of all time. If we can survive it, the age-old dream of ending war may yet come to pass. But, Morris argues, only if we understand what war has been good for can we know where it will take us next.

Praise for War! What Is It Good For?

“[Morris’s] pace is perfect, his range dazzling, his phrasemaking fluent, his humor raucous. . . . [A] rattling good book.” —Felipe Fernández-Armesto, The Wall Street Journal

“Ian Morris’s evidence that war has benefited our species—albeit inadvertently—is provocative, compelling, and fearless. This book is equally horrific and inspiring, detailed and sweeping, lighthearted and dead serious. For those who think war has been a universal disaster, it will change the way they think about the course of history.” —Richard Wrangham, coauthor of Demonic Males and author of Catching Fire

“A disturbing, transformative text that veers toward essential reading.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

© 2024 Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Ebook): 9780374711030

Release date

Ebook: 4 June 2024