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ON THE ORIGINS OF
WAR
Donald Kagan
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Subtitle: On the Origins of War and the
Preservation of Peace, Doubleday, N.Y., 1995, 606 pgs., index, bibliography,
notes
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Reviewer Comments:
In this very interesting and timely today study Dr. Kagan has selected 5 great
wars for analysis. They are all remarkable. They indicate that he means in his
title origins of war as a specific event itself, not the origins of warfare in
ancient or prehistoric time, Note that the final chapter is about a critical
incident in the 'Cold War' that actually did not escalate into a bloody
conflict. He is not describing these wars in total but the origin of each war
in a comparative way.
The author's final words in his Conclusions is the advice and warning he gives
as a result of the lessons desribed in the preceeding 5 case histories.They
should be read and memorized.
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1 - The Peloponnesian War 43- - 404 B.C.
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2 - The First World War 1914 - 1918
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3 - Hannibal's War: The Second Punic War 281
- 202 B.C.
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4 - The Second World War 1939 - 1845
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5 - The Cuban Missile Crisis
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Conclusions; "The persistant and
repeated error through theages hasbeen the failure to understand that the
preservation of peace requires active effort, plannning, and expenditure of
resources, an sacrific, just as war does."
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Some references
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Donald Kagan - 4 volumes on the Peloponnesian
War - The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War - The Archidamian War
- The Peace of Nicias and Sicilian Expedition and The Fall of the
Athenian Expedition
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Victor David Hanson - The Wars of the
Ancient Greeks
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Philip de Souza, Waldemar Heckel & Lloyd
Llewellyn-Jones - The Greeks at War
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Ralph D. Sawyer - Ancient Chinese
warfare
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