Overview

Civil war has been a recurring feature of human societies throughout history - and an essential catalyst for major international conflict. And since 1945 the number of civil wars in the world has grown steadily, bringing devastation on a scale more traditionally associated with international wars. In spite of this, there is no classic treatise on civil war to compare with the classic works we have on war, revolution, or peace. On the one hand, historians have tended to treat the 'big' civil wars such as the American and the Spanish in isolation. On the other, social scientists have concentrated on identifying common patterns, without looking in too much detail at the specifics of any given conflict. Focusing on the numerous civil conflicts that have occurred throughout the world since the Second World War, Bill Kissane bridges this gap, asking what the recent social science literature adds to what we already know about civil war, but also how insights from the historical literature, from the ancient Greeks onwards, can help explain the violent experience of so many parts of the world since 1945. At its heart is the question of what makes the contemporary challenge posed by civil war so different to that of past periods - and what, if anything, is new about the contemporary experience of civil war at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

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9780199602872

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Reviews

excellent ... a full and fitting culmination of insight ... a valuable introductory text * Jonathan Zartman, H Net Reviews: H War * A retrospective global study of the concept of 'Civil War' is a challenge in more ways than one. In refining an old historical concept and applying it to recent conflicts, Bill Kissane rises impressively to the task in this rigorously researched and innovative volume. * Andrew G Newby, Political Studies Review * Nations Torn Asunder [makes] a significant contribution to understanding the complexities of civil war and inter-personal violence ... Kissane brings together successfully insights from history, philosophy, literature and social science to show how civil wars and thinking about civil wars changes through time and space ... insightful and authoritative. * Journal of Political Power * The challenge of this ambitious book, then, is to bring the insights of political philosophy into a field where political scientists, historians, anthropologists and sociologists have already been doing battle for several decades-and where consensus seems as elusive as in the most intractable of civil wars. [...] His corrective is one of perpetual self-reflection that defines and analyzes in the same movement, tracing and comparing processes while refusing to admit simplification. * H-Net * Could it be that a great deal of blood has been spilt, misery endured, by maddened people in pursuit of a chimera, another example of historical irony and bitter humour? Kissane's book is a good place to start finding out. * Eoin Dillon , History Ireland * A truly fascinating read that goes a long way to unravelling the sinister forces that turn neighbour against neighbour and transform once thriving communities into killing fields. Given the current events in Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East in recent years, this important book couldn't be more timely. * History of War * [an] admirably lucid survey ... Bill Kissane has done a great service to general readers by providing a humane guide to the rather soulless social-scientific literature on civil war ... a sophisticated, accessible account. * David Armitage, Times Literary Supplement *

A truly fascinating read that goes a long way to unravelling the sinister forces that turn neighbour against neighbour and transform once thriving communities into killing fields. Given the current events in Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East in recent years, this important book couldn't be more timely. History of War

Bill Kissane has still done a great service to general readers by providing a humane guide to the rather soulless social-scientific literature on civil war ... a sophisticated, accessible account David Armitage, Times Literary Supplement A truly fascinating read that goes a long way to unravelling the sinister forces that turn neighbour against neighbour and transform once thriving communities into killing fields. Given the current events in Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East in recent years, this important book couldn't be more timely. History of War Nations Torn Asunder [makes] a significant contribution to understanding the complexities of civil war and inter-personal violence ... Kissane brings together successfully insights from history, philosophy, literature and social science to show how civil wars and thinking about civil wars changes through time and space ... insightful and authoritative. Journal of Political Power

Author Information

A political scientist and historian, Bill Kissane is a Reader in Politics at the London School of Economics, where he is a member of the Conflict Research Group. He is the author of several books on civil-war related subjects, including a pioneering study of the Irish civil war, The Politics of the Irish Civil War (2005), also published by Oxford University Press, and has held visiting positions at University College Dublin, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Bielefeld, and the National Humanities Centre in North Carolina.

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