Title The verdict of battle : the law of victory and the making of modern war / James Q. Whitman

Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (323 pages) Contents Why battles matter -- Accepting the wager of battle -- Laying just claim to the profits of war -- The monarchical monopolization of military violence -- Were there really rules? -- The death of pitched battle Summary Slaughter in battle was once seen as a legitimate way to settle disputes. When pitched battles ceased to exist, the law of victory gave way to the rule of unbridled force. Whitman explains why ritualized violence was more effective in ending carnage, and why humanitarian laws that view war as evil have led to longer, more barbaric conflicts Today, war is considered a last resort for resolving disagreements. But a day of staged slaughter on the battlefield was once seen as a legitimate means of settling political disputes. James Whitman argues that pitched battle was essentially a trial with a lawful verdict. And when this contained form of battle ceased to exist, the law of victory gave way to the rule of unbridled force. The Verdict of Battle explains why the ritualized violence of the past was more effective than modern warfare in bringing carnage to an end, and why humanitarian laws that cling to a notion of war as evil have led to longer, more barbaric conflicts. Belief that sovereigns could, by rights, wage war for profit made the eighteenth century battle's golden age. A pitched battle was understood as a kind of legal proceeding in which both sides agreed to be bound by the result. To the victor went the spoils, including the fate of kingdoms. But with the nineteenth-century decline of monarchical legitimacy and the rise of republican sentiment, the public no longer accepted the verdict of pitched battles. Ideology rather than politics became war's just cause. And because modern humanitarian law provided no means for declaring a victor or dispensing spoils at the end of battle, the violence of war dragged on. The most dangerous wars, Whitman asserts in this iconoclastic tour de force, are the lawless wars we wage today to remake the world in the name of higher moral imperatives Analysis Multi-User Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record In Druckausg.: Whitman, James Q. Verdict of battle Subject War -- Moral and ethical aspects. Combat -- Moral and ethical aspects Battles -- Europe -- History -- 18th century Military art and science -- Europe -- History -- 18th century War (International law) Military ethics -- History -- 18th century Military history -- 18th century Military history, Modern -- 18th century. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- General. LAW -- International. Battles Combat -- Moral and ethical aspects Military art and science Military ethics Military history War (International law) War -- Moral and ethical aspects Europe Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2012022176 ISBN 9780674068117 0674068114 0674071875 9780674071872

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