Forged Through Fire

Starred review from January 1, 2017
A sometimes-counterintuitive but always fascinating interrogation of the history and uses of war.War--what is it good for? No, not nothing, absolutely or not. By the account of Ferejohn (Law/New York Univ.; Pork Barrel Politics: Rivers and Harbors Legislation, 1947-1968, 1974, etc.) and Rosenbluth (Political Science/Yale Univ.; co-author: Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring, 2010, etc.), war is a kind of "alchemy of iron and blood" that, though fiercely destructive, can give birth to social orders more just and advanced than the ones that preceded them. The authors, known in scholarly circles for work on "warlike democracies," offer numerous case studies taken from the broad sweep of world history. As they note, one reason for the expansion of popular power is that when governments depend on the support of their lower classes for survival, as in the case of war, then they tend to loosen up. Thus, "warfare appears to have been instrumental in brokering the modern democratic compromise between wealth and manpower." Monarchies can be more democratic than aristocracies precisely because they levy popular armies instead of hired guns; in medieval England, for instance, "the wars that the king undertook were generally wars that the nobles, and increasingly the commoners, had agreed to fund and support." Yet presumed democracies are not always paragons of democratic virtue; one extensive case study involves the interplay of the Vietnam War with the civil rights movement, with racism being a major obstacle to military recruitment among blacks in the South. This densely argued but readily accessible book is full of fascinating asides worthy of books of their own--e.g., the role of women voters in pushing peacetime social spending and the fear of outside enemies in forging stronger unions of rich and poor. Yet, as the authors write in conclusion, "war has stopped functioning as a democratizing force" today; even in the fury of destruction, inequality reigns. A book of big ideas backed by fine-grained analyses, worthy of attention by readers with an interest in history and contemporary events alike.

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February 15, 2017

War encourages democracy to flourish because those who govern must bargain with citizens who fight, claim Ferejohn (law, New York Univ.; A Republic of States) and Rosenbluth (political science, Yale Univ.; Japan Transformed) in this compact investigation of representative democracy from fifth century BCE Athens to the 20th-century struggle for civil rights in the United States. The authors demonstrate that both geographic isolation, which requires less centralized authority, and warfare depending on large armies have coaxed democracy to emerge in ancient and modern times. However, representative democracy with its universal voting and property rights did not appear until the 19th and 20th centuries. Only then were democratic benefits granted permanently to the working classes; in earlier times, benefits tended to be temporary and tenuous. Included here is a useful overview of discrimination rampant in the U.S. armed services, which prevented democratic bargains for African Americans. The authors warn that as current wars are fought with more technology and by mercenaries, democratic bargains might dwindle because citizens will comprise fewer fighting forces. VERDICT Although the authors target this book for a general audience as well as historians and political philosophers, its abundance of details will likely discourage nonspecialists. Those who persevere will find it an informed interpretation of democracy's evolution.--Karl Helicher, formerly Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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