This fresh and challenging inquiry into human societies takes a deep look at the effects and roles of war. As the most complex of all human endeavors, warfare - from ancient to modern - has spurred the growth of essential new technologies; demanded the adoption of complex economic systems; shaped the ideology and culture of nations; promoted developments in art and literature; and spread faith across the globe. Over the course of 48 highly provocative lectures, Professor Roth explores armed conflict across five continents. Far from a traditional approach to military events, this panoramic series is not the history of battles or military campaigns, but the story of the intimate interconnections of war with human cultures and societies and how these connections have shaped history. You'll study the complex effects of culture, economics, politics, and religion on war - and war's influences on them. In this context, you chart the colorful history of the practice and methodology of warfare. Among many other things, you'll learn about the development and evolution of history-making military weapons such as bows, horses, swords, and gunpowder; the interface of warfare with religion, which has bred some of the most unusual and poignant conflicts in history; the 17th-century European nation-state, where militaries were "nationalized" into central governments and military service was imbued with ideology of citizenship and loyalty to state; the crucial military underpinnings of nationalism, Communism, Fascism, and other political movements from the modern era. Probe these pivotal and revealing features of history and deepen your understanding of our extraordinary, evolving world.
All Lectures:
1. What Is War?
2. The Historiography of War
3. The Stone Age War
4. Peace, War, and Civilization
5. The Chariot Revolution
6. The Sword Revolution
7. Steppes, Standing Armies, and Silver Trade
8. Pirates and Hoplites
9. Great Empires of West and East
10. War and the Rise of Religion
11. The Greek Way of War
12. An Age of War throughout the Core
13. New Empires and an Armed Peace
14. Monotheisms and Militaries
15. Barbarians and the Fall of Three Empires
16. Conquest Links the Core
17. The Middle Ages and a Common Way of War
18. Armored Horsemen and Global Feudalization
19. Crusade, Jihad, and Dharma Yuddha
20. The Mongols Conquer a World
21. The Business of War in Medieval Europe
22. The Gunpowder Revolution
23. War at the Margins
24. A World Apart - War in the Americas
25. Renaissance and Military Revolution
26. Conquest and Colonies
27. The Gunpowder Empires
28. More Holy Wars
29. The Rise of the Regiment
30. The Wooden World
31. The Global War to Control Trade
32. Warfare and the Nation-State
33. War and the Making of the Americas
34. War and the Unmaking of Africa and Asia
35. The Industrialization of War
36. The Nationalization of War
37. Race and Class at War
38. Imperialism and the Triumph of the West
39. The 19th-Century Culture of War
40. A Common Way of War - The 20th Century
41. War and 20th-Century Ideology
42. War and the Persistence of Nationalism
43. Economies and Economics at War
44. Culture and War in the 20th Century
45. The Weaponization of Information
46. Guerrilla War and Terrorism
47. The Struggle for Peace and Justice
48. Warfare at the Turn of a New Century
