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Dying and Killing for Nations: Warfare as Sacrifice
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Perhaps with the advent of “drones,” the idea of sacrifice—dying for the nation-state—isn’t what it used to be. However, beginning in 1914—and for the rest of the 20th century—political history was dominated by the fact that leaders asked human beings to kill and die for their countries. And by the fact that human beings (mostly young men) responded to the call—going into battle when asked to do so.

For the past ten years, Library of Social Science has published papers and essays developing the idea of warfare as a form of sacrifice. In the following series of Newsletter that you will receive over the next few days, we will present some of the best writings we have published on this topic.

We hope that you will join us on this journey.

Best regards,
Orion Anderson
Dying and Killing for Nations: Warfare as Sacrifice
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Sovereign is Born in a Sacrificial Shedding of Blood (Paul Kahn)
Part 2: Men go to War: not so much to kill, as to die (Jean Bethke Elshtain)
Part 3: First World War as a Ritual Act of Purification (Roger Griffin)
Part 4: U.S. War Culture (Kelly Denton-Borhaug)
Part 5: Australia is Born: Blood Sacrifice at Gallipoli (Renee D. Lockwood)
Part 6: Lambs to the Slaughter: Warfare as a Sacrificial Ritual (Ivan Strenski)
Part 7: Human Bombers as Sacrificial Gifts (Ivan Strenski)
Part 8: Transcendence through Blood Sacrifice (Michael Vlahos)
Part 9: Warfare as Ritual and Symbolic Theater (Michael Vlahos)
Part 10: “What should we call Fallen Warriors?” (David Weddle)