Forged Through Fire: War, Peace, and the Democratic Bargain [Hardcover]

This isnt the story were taught in high-school civics. But its a compelling one, powerfully told by two scholars with mastery of their subject. The authors walk the reader through 2,500 bloody years of Western history, from the Peloponnesian wars to the war in Vietnam, highlighting, again and again, a brutal trade-off: The emergence and consolidation of democracy depends on warfare, and a particular kind of warfare, at that&Their magisterial volume makes the case in persuasive and explicit detail.In this hugely erudite, deeply engaging, and highly readable book, John Ferejohn and Frances Rosenbluth conjoin a mastery of 2,500 years of military history with cutting-edge political science to produce a convincing and sobering account of how mass mobilization for war led to the rise of modern democracy. This deep dive into history offers new insight into the democratic dilemmas we now face as we enter a world of globalization, nationalism, and inequality, when war is no longer a driver of popular self-government.Democracies are rare, so history tells us, and fragile. How do they arise? In a vivid and insightful analysis that reaches back to the ancient Greeks and up to the twenty-first century, Ferejohn and Rosenbluth link the rise of democracy to mass mobilization warfare. War, they show, shapes political institutions, but politics affects war.This sweeping, sophisticated historical analysis charts the interplay of war, state-building, and franchise extension from ancient Athens to the civil rights revolution in the United States that followed World War II. While never losing sight of the timelessness of the main argument about the conflict between elite and mass, all the subtle nuances, contingencies, and tradeoffs are brilliantly brought out in this innovative, compelling account.With an account that spans continents and centuries, John Ferejohn and Frances Rosenbluth explore the complex and shifting ties between wars and democratic government. Academic stlÛ