The Ultimate Experience: Battlefield Revelations and the Making of Modern War Culture, 1450-2000

by Peter France

Overview

For millennia, war was viewed as a supreme test. In the period 1750-1850 war became much more than a test: it became a secular revelation. This new understanding of war as revelation completely transformed Western war culture, revolutionizing politics, the personal experience of war, the status of common soldiers, and the tenets of military theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230536920
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	03/07/2008
Edition description:	2008
Pages:	386
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.04(d)

About the Author

YUVAL NOAH HARARI is a military historian specializing in the study of war experience and war culture. He lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Table of Contents

Preface PART I:INTRODUCTION – WAR AS REVELATION, 1865-2000 PART II: 1450-1740 – THE SUPREMACY OF MIND Suffering, Death and Revelation in Early Modern Culture The Absence of Revelation from Early Modern Military Memoirs Why War Revealed Nothing PART III: 1740-1865 – THE REVOLT OF THE BODY Bodies Begin to Think The Rise of the Common Soldier The Rise of the Revelatory Interpretation of War Conclusions: The Things Which Make You Know, 1865-2000 Works Cited

Editorial Reviews

'Like a good detective story, Harari presents us with facts and clues which seem to lead towards one conclusion, only to puncture our certainties. This is a book of exraordinary wit, erudition, and range.' - Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck College, University of London

From the Publisher