Overview

This title argues that the fear of death powerfully shapes our thinking about war. Drawing on an extensive study of 20th-century US foreign policy officials, the book argues that through the use of symbolism, metaphor, and ritual, the foreign policy leadership construe war as a battle against death itself. This social construction of death in battle then helps the soldiers and the nation gain a sense of immortality. The book provides a fresh and provocative perspective on the underlying cultural and psychological dynamics that make it possible for nations to go to war.

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9780312239282

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Underhill-Cady calls for a new realism to replace the technological hubris that has dominated American political and military thinking during the past century. His voice needs to be heard, and his book should be read by anyone concerned with war and peace, life and death, in the new millennium. -- Charles P. Webel, University of California, Berkeley and Saybrook Graduate School <br> Underhill-Cady shows that strategic decisions arise less from concerns about national costs and benefits than from personal concerns about the decision-makers own bodies. They transfer their own cravings for immortality into the icy-cold, steel-girded, rock hard, healthy minded male American body politic. American foreign policy, with its evil empires, crusades, and crucifixions on the alter of the nation, becomes a bowdlerized Pilgrim's Progress. Read and be alarmed. -- James Aho, Idaho State University<br>

Underhill-Cady calls for a new realism to replace the technological hubris that has dominated American political and military thinking during the past century. His voice needs to be heard, and his book should be read by anyone concerned with war and peace, life and death, in the new millennium. --Charles P. Webel, University of California, Berkeley and Saybrook Graduate School<br><br> Underhill-Cady shows that strategic decisions arise less from concerns about national costs and benefits than from personal concerns about the decision-makers own bodies. They transfer their own cravings for immortality into the icy-cold, steel-girded, rock hard, healthy minded male American body politic. American foreign policy, with its evil empires, crusades, and crucifixions on the alter of the nation, becomes a bowdlerized Pilgrim's Progress. Read and be alarmed. --James Aho, Idaho State University<br>

&#8220;Underhill-Cady calls for a new realism to replace the technological hubris that has dominated American political and military thinking during the past century. His voice needs to be heard, and his book should be read by anyone concerned with war and peace, life and death, in the new millennium.&#8221; &#8212;Charles P. Webel, University of California, Berkeley and Saybrook Graduate School <br>&#8220;Underhill-Cady shows that strategic decisions arise less from concerns about national costs and benefits than from personal concerns about the decision-makers own bodies. They transfer their own cravings for immortality into the icy-cold, steel-girded, rock hard, healthy minded male American body politic. American foreign policy, with its evil empires, crusades, and crucifixions on the alter of the nation, becomes a bowdlerized Pilgrim's Progress. Read and be alarmed.&#8221; &#8212;James Aho, Idaho State University<br>

Author Information

JOSEPH B. UNDERHILL-CADY received his doctorate in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1995. He is currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at Augsburg College, where he teaches courses in world politics, political culture, and U.S. foreign policy, and continues to do research on the psychological and cultural underpinnings of human destructiveness. He lives in Minneapolis, with his wife Palma and children, Meryn and Ian.

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