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The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild.
Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of the past").
Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European nations to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Fortification, Prehistoric, Prehistoric Fortification, Prehistoric Weapons, Prehistorico Warfare, Warfare, Prehistorico, Weapons, Prehistoric, Military art and science, history, Weapons, ancient, Earthworks (archaeology), War, history, War and civilization, Prehistoric Warfare, New York Times reviewed, HISTORY, Military, Pictorial, Krieg, Kriegführung, Naturvolk, Oorlogvoering, Prehistorie, Wapens (krijgskunde), Guerra (história), Pré-história, Guerre primitive, Fortifications préhistoriques, Armes préhistoriques, Guerre préhistoriqueShowing 4 featured editions. View all 4 editions?
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War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage
October 28, 1997, Oxford University Press, USA
in English
0195119126 9780195119121
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War Before Civilization
1996, Oxford University Press, Incorporated
in English
0199761531 9780199761531
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"War has long been a sensation topic."
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- Created April 29, 2008
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December 19, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
September 3, 2023 | Edited by WikidataBot | [sync_edition_olids] add wikidata identifier |
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