Samuel Moyn, "Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War" (FSG, 2021)
Is it possible that efforts to make war more humane can actually make it more common and thus more destructive?\xa0\xa0\nThis tension at the heart of this query\xa0lies at the heart of Samuel Moyn's new book\nHumane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War\xa0(Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2021). He draws fascinating connections between literary figures such as Tolstoy and Bertha von Suttner, civil society organizations such as the Red Cross and\xa0Human Rights Watch, and politicans and military figures to try to understand a central question:\xa0why, when we have done so much to limit the violence inherent in war, has war remained so common.\xa0His answer is counterintuitive and challenging--it is precisely the limitations on violence that have taken some of the urgency out of the effort to eliminate war itself.\xa0The result, he suggests, is as series of forever wars.\xa0\xa0\nMoyn's anaylsis is fascinating.\xa0But Moyn also reminds the reader about historical figures and movements widely known at the time but largely ignored in recent times.\xa0The result is a fascinating survey of the history of anti-war movements and the debates within them as they tried to imagine and create a world in soldiers, or some of them, put down their weapons, or some of them, to end the violence, or as much of it as they could.\nKelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies