Modernity and War: The Creed of Absolute Violence

This book is a philosophical exploration of war from the Enlightenment to the present. Lawrence (international politics, U. of West of England) shows the contradiction between Enlightenment assumptions concerning human progress and the West's involvement in mass violence. He goes on to argue that the real cultural beliefs of Western states have been far removed from the proclaimed moral doctrines of Western philosophy. The book concludes with a discussion of the effect that nuclear weapons have had on the modernist view of war. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.