![]() ![]() As he put it, war is "always an expression of culture, often a determinant of cultural forms, in some ways the society itself." Keegan's view of war overlapped with that of Margaret Mead, who saw war as not a "biological necessity" but as an invention. Keegan weighed and rejected these theories as well as ones attributing war to environmental and economic factors, notably overpopulation and scarcity of resources.Īlthough he declared war to be an "entirely masculine activity," Keegan also viewed it as cultural more than biological. Wilson that war stems from deep-rooted biological impulses we share with chimpanzees. Keegan's book serves as a potent counterpoint to-and more, refutation of-popular claims by scientists such as Richard Wrangham and Edward O. Keegan takes you through the entire history of war, from the ancient Greek battles chronicled by Thucydides right up through the Cold War and the First Gulf War. Knopf, 1993), one of the best-written and most insightful investigations of violent conflict that I've read. Among his 20-plus books was A History of Warfare (Alfred A. 78 years old, he died after a long illness in England, where he was born and bred. John Keegan, whom The New York Times called "the preeminent military historian of his era," is dead. ![]()
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