Why We Fight
Why We Fight by Mike Martin, published by Hurst in 2021, is a thought-provoking exploration of the psychological and evolutionary factors that drive humans toward conflict. This edition spans 328 pages and is presented in English. The book delves into questions surrounding the motivations for warfare, examining how our ancestral experiences have shaped contemporary behaviors related to violence and conflict.
In this insightful work, Martin draws on his experiences as a soldier and scholar to analyze the continuums of violence from both animal and human perspectives. He discusses how social structures have evolved to mitigate warfare, highlighting the role of larger social groups in reducing conflict. The book also addresses the implications of disintegration in these groups, suggesting that while humanity has a predisposition for warfare, there remains a possibility for a future where conflict is diminished. Through this lens, Why We Fight offers a comprehensive examination of the historical and psychological underpinnings of war, making it a significant contribution to the fields of history, psychology, and sociology.
Official synopsis Publisher
Why are we willing to die for our countries? Does religion precipitate violence? Do pride, anger and vengeance lead to war? Can ideology persuade someone to blow themselves up?
This ground-breaking book explores how tens of thousands of years of evolution have shaped our brains to fight, and not to fight. Drawing on insights gleaned as a soldier and a scholar, and a biologist, Mike Martin explains how the lives and deaths of our ancestors have shaped our behavior to propel us towards conflict, even as that option makes less and less sense.
Why We Fight highlights the continuums between animal and human individual violence and explains how mankind has massively reduced the preponderance of warfare by creating larger and larger social groups. Together, these arguments form a compelling demonstration of humans’ evolutionary predisposition to warfare, rooted in a prehistoric past when going to war actually increased your chances of survival. Our contemporary world is marked by the disintegration of social groups, which inevitably increases the likelihood of conflict — yet, Martin concludes, humans may still ultimately outlive warfare altogether, consigning it to history.
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