Bookshelf
| can't find it |

| browse books |
books
 

| book details |

Why War?

By (author) Richard Overy

| on special |

normal price: R 760.95

Price: R 684.95


| book description |

Richard Overy is not the first scholar to take up the title question. In 1931, at the request of the League of Nations, Albert Einstein asked Sigmund Freud to collaborate on a short work examining whether there was “a way of delivering mankind from the menace of war.” Published the next year as a pamphlet entitled Why War?, it conveyed Freud’s conclusion that the “death drive” made any deliverance impossible—the psychological impulse to destruction was universal in the animal kingdom. The global wars of the later 1930s and 1940s seemed ample evidence of the dismal conclusion. A preeminent historian of those wars, Overy brings vast knowledge to the title question and years of experience unraveling the knotted motivations of war. His approach is to separate the major drivers and motivations, and consider the ways each has contributed to organized conflict. They range from the impulses embedded in human biology and psychology, to the incentives to conflict developed through cultural evolution, to competition for resources—conflicts stirred by the passions of belief, the effects of ecological stresses, the drive for power in leaders and nations, and the search for security. The discussions show remarkable range, delving deep into the Neolithic past, through the twentieth-century world wars, and up to the current conflict in Ukraine. The examples are absorbing, from the Roman Empire’s voracious appetite for resources to the impulse to power evident in Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Hitler. The conclusion is not hopeful, but Overy’s book is a gift to readers: a compact, judicious, engrossing examination of a fundamental question.

| product details |



Normally shipped | Forthcoming
Publisher | WW Norton & Co
Published date | 4 Jun 2024
Language |
Format | Hardback
Pages | 304
Dimensions | 239 x 160 x 25mm (L x W x H)
Weight | 555g
ISBN | 978-1-3240-2174-2
Readership Age |
BISAC | history / military / other
Expected |

| other options |



Normally shipped | Forthcoming. Coming into print soon, we are accepting back orders for this item
Readership Age |
Normal Price | R 823.95
Price | R 740.95 | on special |



| your trolley |

To view the items in your trolley please sign in.

| sign in |

| specials |

The Thing at 52

Mr. Ross Montgomery
Hardback
40 pages
was: R 382.95
now: R 343.95
Usually dispatched in 3 to 4 weeks as supplier is out of stock

The Thing at 52 is a beautiful picture book about friendship, loneliness and learning how to say goodbye.

The Silent Patient: The record-breaking, multimillion copy Sunday Times bestselling thriller and TikTok sensation

Alex Michaelides
Paperback / softback
352 pages
was: R 254.95
now: R 229.95
Usually dispatched in 4-8 weeks

With film rights snapped up by an Oscar winning Hollywood production company, rights sold in a world record 43 territories, and rave blurbs from David Baldacci, Lee Child and A.

Free Your Mind: The new world of manipulation and how to resist it

Laura Dodsworth
Paperback / softback
384 pages
was: R 273.95
now: R 245.95
Usually dispatched in 4-8 weeks

The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Learn how to recognise and resist the daily attempts to control and manipulate your mind.