Barbed Wire: A Political History - Softcover

Razac, Olivier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565848128 ISBN 13: 9781565848122

Publisher: The New Press, 2003

Synopsis

No less than the internal combustion engine, the transistor, or the silicon chip, barbed wire is a quintessentially modern invention, a product that has influenced the lives of millions of people across the globe since its invention in the late nineteenth century. Now in paperback, Barbed Wire: A Political History demonstrates that the invention of barbed wire was a major breakthrough with far-reaching consequences. Cheap and mass-produced, barbed wire accomplished what no other product did before it, or has since done more effectively: the control of vast amounts of open space.

Razac describes how barbed wire has been employed in the harnessing of nature, brutal mass warfare, political conquest and repression, and genocide. In a narrative that spans the history of the American frontier, the trenches of World War I, the Holocaust, and beyond, Barbed Wire: A Political History looks unflinchingly at a central and fascinating strand of modern life.

About this title

Review

FROM THE DEVIL'S ROPE TO NO MAN'S LAND, "A VITAL WORK OF CULTURAL CRITICISM"

[Razac] proves himself the poet of barbed wire....An important, accessible and even beautiful study of this deadly instrument.

"Razac writes with a cool precision that matches the sharp sting of his subject."
"The Christian Science Monitor"
"A fascinating read. . . . No one who reads "Barbed Wire" will look at this stuff the same way again."
"Salon"
"[Razac] proves himself the poet of barbed wire. . . . An important, accessible and even beautiful study of this deadly instrument."
"St. Petersburg Times""

About the Author

Olivier Razac lives in Lyons, France. A philosopher by training, he is completing a doctoral dissertation on the genealogy of biopower.

Edition details

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1565848128
• ISBN 13: 9781565848122
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144