{"id":28980,"date":"2025-12-09T23:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28980"},"modified":"2025-12-09T23:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:36:11","slug":"book-review-war-morris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28980","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REViEW: War, Morris"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is a terrific book. And I\u2019m really enjoying reading it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started this review whilst still in the first third of the text. I did so because I don\u2019t want to forget to mention some of the key concepts Ian Morris uses: eg \u2018caging\u2019 and \u2018lucky latitudes\u2019. These two are actually deeply interwoven: the caging occurs within (roughly) the lucky latitudes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to be frank, and admit I don\u2019t actually like either term (rather as I dislike Ian Kershaw\u2019s very University-thesis sounding \u2018working towards the F\u00fchrer\u2019, in his huge Hitler biog). But these descriptors do fit. So that\u2019s got to remain a very minor (almost aesthetic?) quibble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broad arcs – makes one think of a sword being swiug, very apt! – of his arguments seem to me, eminently reasonable. Indeed, I remember starting to think along these lines myself, years before encountering them explicitly stated, thanks to my ongoing exposure to and interest in evolutionary theory and military history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also a prescience to what he\u2019s talking about, as modern \u2018democracies\u2019 currently struggle with resurgent fascist tendencies, etc\u2026 [took a break, at this point]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m coming back to writing this review at about 70% of the way through the main body of text. It seems appropriate to resume at this point, as I want to note that the book\u2019s subtitle \u2018from primates to robots\u2019 seemed rather odd at first. As the book starts (after the intro) in Ancient Roman times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s only at this 70% point that Morris zips back, 3.8 billion years, to pre-cellular \u2018blobs\u2019, quickly sketching an entire evolutionary arc, whilst considering the balance between cooperation and conflict. This chapter – Red in Tooth Claw – introduces some mathematical ideas, inc. game theory, and is fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a book that\u2019s over two-thirds chronological, from Rome to post WWII, the sudden and massive jump back in time is followed by a sudden jump forward, to the Cold War, nuclear deterrence, the \u2018pacifist\u2019s dilemma\u2019 (more game theory) and the collapse of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to confess that this is where – particularly in the chapter Last Best Hope – certain strands of Morris\u2019 thinking start to trouble me more than just a little\u2026 particularly in relation to the idea of America as the new and liberal\/democratic \u2019Globocop\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His flights of fortune-telling fantasy – as he summarises likely Sino-American conflict outcomes – strike me as scarily akin to the solemn celebrations of one of the authors and experts he quotes (I forget exactly who), prior to WWI, and Chamberlain, pre WWII, with his \u2018peace in our time\u2019! Predictions of this sort can be embarrassingly wide of the mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book was written before Trump\u2019s second disastrous destabilising term as POTUS. Someone needs to bring home to Trump that \u2018Globocops\u2026 pay huge reputational costs for brutalising the innocent\u2019, as Morris puts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fascinating and thought-provoking book. Well worth reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a terrific book. And I\u2019m really enjoying reading it. I started this review whilst still in the first third of the text. I did so because I don\u2019t want to forget to mention some of the key concepts Ian Morris uses: eg \u2018caging\u2019 and \u2018lucky latitudes\u2019. These two are actually deeply interwoven: the … <\/p>\n

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