War: How Conflict Shaped Us

By: Margaret MacMillan

Narrated by: Deepti Gupta

Is peace an aberration? The New York Times bestselling author of Paris 1919 offers a provocative view of war as an essential component of humanity.

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Margaret MacMillan has produced another seminal work. . . . She is right that we must, more than ever, think about war. And she has shown us how in this brilliant, elegantly written book.”—H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

The instinct to fight may be innate in human nature, but war—organized violence—comes with organized society. War has shaped humanity’s history, its social and political institutions, its values and ideas. Our very language, our public spaces, our private memories, and some of our greatest cultural treasures reflect the glory and the misery of war. War is an uncomfortable and challenging subject not least because it brings out both the vilest and the noblest aspects of humanity.

Margaret MacMillan looks at the ways in which war has influenced human society and how, in turn, changes in political organization, technology, or ideologies have affected how and why we fight. War: How Conflict Shaped Us explores such much-debated and controversial questions as: When did war first start? Does human nature doom us to fight one another? Why has war been described as the most organized of all human activities? Why are warriors almost always men? Is war ever within our control?

Drawing on lessons from wars throughout the past, from classical history to the present day, MacMillan reveals the many faces of war—the way it has determined our past, our future, our views of the world, and our very conception of ourselves.

©2020 Margaret MacMillan (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[A] richly eclectic discussion of how culture and society have been molded by warfare throughout history . . . as colorful and tightly woven as a Persian carpet, showing us not just the many ways that men and women make war, but how war makes women and men . . . MacMillan writes with enormous ease, and practically every page of this book is interesting, even entertaining. . . . The greatest pleasures of this book are the historical anecdotes, moments and quotations that MacMillan marshals on nearly every page to illustrate her points. They are bold, arresting and various, and they make the book come alive.”—Dexter Filkins, The New York Times Book Review

“War is awful but somehow alluring, dreaded but too often welcomed. On these pages, with her vast gifts as a historian and storyteller, Margaret MacMillan explains why.”—Evan Thomas, journalist and historian, author of Sea of Thunder and Ike’s Bluff

“A foremost historian explores one of the central forces of human history. This readable and convincing work is yet another tour de force from Margaret MacMillan!”—Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, author of Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump

Greatest Book Ever

Margaret MacMillan, the best diplomatic historian of the twentieth century and David Lloyd George’s great-granddaughter, has written a paradigm shattering study of war.

Excelent Narrative About Wars

Once again Margaret Macmillan provides a though provoking book on Humans and war. A must read.

non fiction, quite interesting

Quite good with the history or war and different viewpoints with civilians and military, that is often not seen but greatly appreciated with this book by this combat veteran!

Loved the depth. Missing a direction.

Loads of information. Obscure facts, varied perspective, scattershot timeline, but the dates bring you back. Had to use my knowledge, or lack of, history to follow along in some chapters.

Outstanding Exploration of War and Mankind

This is an incredibly thought provoking and comprehensive exploration of how war and human civilization have influenced each other. Margaret MacMillan is a well respected historian and she has really outdone herself with this book. She takes a philosophical approach to why we fight wars and how those reasons have evolved along with human civilization. She touches on the paradoxes that have presented themselves as our world moves away from dictatorships and monarchies and into an age of governance dominated by democratically elected leaders. She also touches on the future of warfare and how we must face the grim reality that war is a beast that is far from being tamed. I highly suggest this book for anyone who loves history and wishes to gain a deeper understanding of how human nature and war are connected.

Amazingly researched and written - truly one of the best audiobooks

As someone who care deeply about issues of war and peace, this book extended my understanding of the history and concepts of war to another level.

Great book, beautifully read

Margaret MacMillan’s writing is almost as lovely as Deepti Gupta’s voice. This audiobook is highly recommended!

The historical detail was outstanding.

I liked the many facets of the subject that are often overlooked like how war influences art and how art influences war.

Incredibly Comprehensive but Sad Tale

Macmillan has done an amazing job of tracing the sad, warts and all, history of Warfare from its earliest roots in the Human Community. She looks at all its motivations and rationales and is unflinching in pointing them out in all their ugliness, cruelty, and venality.

She looks at her subject from all sides: History, Politics, Religion, Arts, Culture, Impact on Society and Economics, etc. If this work has a weakness at all, and I think it’s because of the Author’s intent to write a complete historical analysis rather than a political screed, it is that it leaves out first-person accounts of the real victims of War: the soldiers and innocent civilians whose lives have been impacted or totally destroyed by their voluntary or involuntary participation in its horrible folly.

To get the whole picture I would recommend reading War in combination with works by Chris Hedges, Tim O’Brian, Sebastian Junger, Dalton Trumbo or Michael Herr.

But MacMillan has effectively done what she set out to do and for that I commend her and give War Four Stars. We need to read and listen. We could learn a lot.

Book Without a Purpose

A compendium of everything you ever want to know about war but no thesis/premise .