In this hugely erudite, deeply engaging, and highly readable book, John Ferejohn and Frances Rosenbluth conjoin a mastery of 2,500 years of military history with cutting-edge political science to produce a convincing and sobering account of how mass mobilization for war led to the rise of modern democracy. This deep dive into history offers new insight into the democratic dilemmas we now face as we enter a world of globalization, nationalism, and inequality, when war is no longer a driver of popular self-government.
Josiah Ober, professor of political science and classics, Stanford University, and author of The Rise and Fall of Classical Athens Democracies are rare, so history tells us, and fragile. How do they arise? In a vivid and insightful analysis that reaches back to the ancient Greeks and up to the twenty-first century, Ferejohn and Rosenbluth link the rise of democracy to mass mobilization warfare. War, they show, shapes political institutions, but politics affects war.
Philip T. Hoffman, Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and professor of history, California Institute of Technology This sweeping, sophisticated historical analysis charts the interplay of war, state-building, and franchise extension from ancient Athens to the civil rights revolution in the United States that followed World War II. While never losing sight of the timelessness of the main argument about the conflict between elite and mass, all the subtle nuances, contingencies, and tradeoffs are brilliantly brought out in this innovative, compelling account.
James E. Alt, Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government Emeritus, Harvard University With an account that spans continents and centuries, John Ferejohn and Frances Rosenbluth explore the complex and shifting ties between wars and democratic government. Academic stars in comparative politics, they provide a brilliant account of the growth and decline of modern democracy, and of their causes in the very technology of warfare.
J. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies, Harvard Law School This densely argued but readily accessible book is full of fascinating asides worthy of books of their own. . . . A book of big ideas backed by fine-grained analyses, worthy of attention by readers with an interest in history and contemporary events alike. This isn't the story we're taught in high-school civics. But it's a compelling one, powerfully told by two scholars with mastery of their subject. The authors walk the reader through 2,500 bloody years of Western history, from the Peloponnesian wars to the war in Vietnam, highlighting, again and again, a brutal trade-off: The emergence and consolidation of democracy depends on warfare, and a particular kind of warfare, at that...Their magisterial volume makes the case in persuasive and explicit detail.
Rosa Brooks llluminating...The book begins with fascinating chapters about war and democracy in classical Athens and Rome; later chapters explore the nineteenth century's grand armies and the emergence of total war in the twentieth century, which had profound effects on the expansion of democratic life in the West.
G. John Ikenberry Impressive, wide reaching, extremely important
this book provides a welcome impressive historical sweep of the connection between democracy and war. It reaches back to the Greek classics to draw on key concepts in how to understand political systems, then takes us through major episodes and cases in world history, war, and revolution. We've long known 'politics does not stop at the water's edge, ' as the old clich put it. This book makes it clear why. A must-read.
Peter Gourevitch, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, School of Global Policy and Strategy and Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego