Why War?: The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez - Softcover

Smith, Philip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 145962758X ISBN 13: 9781459627581

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2012

Synopsis

Why did America invade Iraq? Why do nations choose to fight certain wars and not others? How do we bring ourselves to believe that the sacrifice of our troops is acceptable? For most, the answers to these questions are tied to struggles for power or resources and the machinations of particular interest groups. Philip Smith argues that this realist answer to the age - old ''why war?'' question is insufficient. Instead, Smith suggests that every war has its roots in the ways we tell and interpret stories. Comprised of case studies of the War in Iraq, the Gulf War, and the Suez Crisis, Why War? decodes the cultural logic of the narratives that justify military action. Each nation, Smith argues, makes use of binary codes - good and evil, sacred and profane, rational and irrational, to name a few. These codes, in the hands of political leaders, activists, and the media, are deployed within four different types of narratives - mundane, tragic, romantic, or apocalyptic. With this cultural system, Smith is able to radically recast our ''war stories'' and show how nations can have vastly different understandings of crises as each identifies the relevant protagonists and antagonists, objects of struggle, and threats and dangers. The large - scale sacrifice of human lives necessary in modern war, according to Smith, requires an apocalyptic vision of world events.

About this title

Review:

"Why War? is a terrific book: sophisticated, fascinating, passionate, and beautifully written. Contending that the standard ways of understanding wars leave much unexplained, Philip Smith instead applies cultural binaries to conflicts that include the War in Iraq, the Gulf War, and the Suez Crisis. It could hardly be more timely and will go on the same shelves with some of the great works of military theory and history, as well as on the very short list of serious and nonpartisan attempts to understand the Iraq War." - Wendy Griswold, Northwestern University"

About the Author:

Philip Smith is assistant professor of sociology at Yale University. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including the widely praised Cultural Theory: An Introduction.

About this edition

• Publisher: ReadHowYouWant
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 145962758X
• ISBN 13: 9781459627581
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 504