Description
Book Synopsis: A prominent historian exposes the dark side of making war more humaneIn the years since 9/11, we have entered an age of endless war, with the United States exercising dominion everywhere. In Humane, Samuel Moyn asks a troubling but urgent question: What if efforts to make war more ethical—to ban torture and limit civilian casualties—have only shored up the military enterprise and made it sturdier?
To advance this case, Moyn looks back at a century and a half of passionate arguments about the ethics and law of using force. In the nineteenth century, the founders of the Red Cross struggled mightily to make war less lethal even as they acknowledged its inevitability. Leo Tolstoy prominently opposed their efforts, reasoning that war needed to be abolished, not reformed—and over the subsequent century, a popular movement to abolish war flourished on both sides of the Atlantic. Eventually, however, reformers shifted their attention from opposing the crime of war to opposing war crimes.
In the post-9/11 era, the U.S. military embraced the agenda of humane war, driven by both the availability of precision weaponry and the need to protect its image. The battle moved from the streets to the courtroom, where the tactics of the war on terror were litigated but the war’s foundational assumptions went without serious challenge. These trends have only accelerated since. Even as the Obama and Trump administrations spoke of American power and morality in radically different tones, they ushered in the second decade of the “forever” war.
Humane is the story of how America went off to fight and never came back and how armed combat was transformed from an imperfect tool for resolving disputes into an integral component of the modern condition. As American wars become more protracted, they are also becoming more humane. This provocative book argues that this development might not represent progress at all.
Details
Are you concerned about the direction that endless war has taken in our world today? Look no further than "Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War." In this thought-provoking book, prominent historian Samuel Moyn questions whether our efforts to make war more ethical have inadvertently made it stronger and more ingrained in society.
Throughout the 9/11 era, the United States has exercised dominion over conflicts around the globe. But what if our attempts to limit civilian casualties and ban torture have only bolstered the military enterprise itself? Moyn takes us on a journey through history, where we witness passionate debates about the ethics and laws surrounding armed conflicts.
From the Red Cross founders' struggle to make war less lethal in the nineteenth century to the popular movement to abolish war in the twentieth century, the push for reform has been persistent. However, over time, the focus shifted from opposing the crime of war to opposing war crimes.
In today's post-9/11 world, the U.S. military embraced the concept of humane war, using precision weaponry and maneuvering to protect its image. The battle has moved from the streets to the courtroom, where the tactics of the war on terror have been scrutinized. Yet, the foundational assumptions of war have remained largely unchallenged.
As America's wars have become more protracted, they have also become more humane. But is this progress? Moyn argues that we may have lost sight of the original goal: to resolve disputes through peaceful means. "Humane" sheds light on how armed combat has transformed from a means to an end into an inescapable part of our modern condition.
If you're ready to challenge conventional wisdom and engage in a critical examination of the consequences of making war more ethical, get your copy of "Humane" today.
Click here to explore the profound insights within this groundbreaking book and gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between ethics and war.
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