War before civilization

Bibliographic Data

ID23258403
AuthorsLawrence H Keeley
Year1996
Pages245
Publication date1996-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
Reviewed byWar before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage, R Brian Ferguson, 1997
Reviewed byWar before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage, Eliot A Cohen, 1996
VenueWar before civilization (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
Open LibraryOL1085144M
ISBN9780195091120
LanguageEN
Citations received428

The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of the past"). Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European nations to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world.

Armes préhistoriques · Earthworks (Archaeology) · Fortification · Fortification, Prehistoric · Fortifications préhistoriques · Guerra (história) · Guerre préhistorique · Guerre primitive · History · Krieg · Kriegführung · Military · Military art and science · Naturvolk · New York Times reviewed · Oorlogvoering · Pictorial · Pré-história · Prehistoric · Prehistoric Fortification · Prehistoric Warfare · Prehistoric Weapons · Prehistorico Warfare · Prehistorie · Wapens (krijgskunde) · War · War and civilization · Warfare, Prehistorico · Weapons, Ancient · Weapons, Prehistoric

Tools

Libgen