One of the most revolutionary books of the 21st Century—certainly the most disturbing—is Nations Have the Right to Kill. Based on thirty years of research, Richard Koenigsberg theorizes that nation-states come alive to the extent that that they are fed with the blood and bodies of sacrificial victims.
Lee Hall states that Dr. Koenigsberg's message is one that "anyone with an interest in changing the course of human history should internalize and reflect upon." Ruth Stein observes that Koenigsberg's ideas "cut through conventional notions about war," enabling us to "understand institutions in utterly new ways."
Scholars and students writing about collective forms of violence cannot afford to be without this book.
Orion Anderson
Editor-in-Chief, Library of Social Science
(718) 393-1104
oanderson@libraryofsocialscience.com |
The Aztecs believed that as long as men could offer the blood and hearts of captives taken in combat, the "power of the sun god would not decline." The warrior who died in battle "brought the sun to life" and became a "companion to the sun." The rising sun was the "reincarnation of a dead warrior."
In Nations Have the Right to Kill, Dr. Koenigsberg theorizes that the First World War was fought—in order to keep nations alive. Gods like France, Germany and Great Britain were fed with the bodies and blood of sacrificial victims. In the midst of the First World War, French nationalist Maurice Barres praised French soldiers who were dying on a daily basis, stating that France would be "rebuilt from their souls." The "sublime sun of youth," he said, "sinks into the sea and becomes the dawn which will hereafter rise again." We say that "the individual dies so that the nation may live." What is the difference between Aztec warriors and the soldiers of the First World War? |