Review by Jonathan Power

 

The Invention of Peace. Reflections on War and International Order

By Michael Howard

Yale University Press, 2000

The professor of military history of the universities of Yale and Oxford here in a short book distills the great historical sweep of his earlier volumes. With his usual felicity of expression he explains the origins of war in human society, its ingrained nature through the millennia, and argues that it would be foolish to believe that after the Cold War permanent peace has come upon us.
I recomend this book for those who like the long view of history and who like to be convinced that mankind will never change its (violent)spots!

Jonathan Power
March 2002

Jonathan Power is TFF Associates