War: What is it good for?

by Ian Morris

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  In writing this book, I received generous help and support from many, many people. I could not have written the book without the support of Stanford University’s School of Humanities and Sciences and Hoover Institution or the encouragement, patience, and good cheer of my wife, Kathy St. John.

  Daron Acemoglu, David Berkey, Laura Betzig, Mat Burrows, Eric Chinski, Daniel Crewe, Banning Garrett, Azar Gat, Deborah Gordon, Steve Haber, David Holloway, Parag Khanna, Phil Kleinheinz, Steve LeBlanc, Ramez Naam, Josh Ober, Steve Pinker, Jim Robinson, Walter Scheidel, Kathy St. John, Peter Turchin, Richard Wrangham, and Amy Zegart read and commented on the book as I was writing it. I thank them again for their
advice and support and apologize for the places where I was too stubborn to take it or too obtuse to understand it.

  Peter Abigail, Daron Acemoglu, David Armitage, Al Bergesen, Mat Burrows, Banning Garrett, Elhanan Helpman, Mike McCormick, Dick O’Neill, Jim Robinson, Peter Turchin, and Norman Vasu invited me to highly informative meetings and conferences, and Karl Eikenberry included me on trips to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases in Nevada. I thank all of them, as well as Viet Luong, Mark Pye, and the personnel at Fort Irwin, Nellis, and Creech for making the visits so valuable.

  Laura Betzig, George Cowgill, Azar Gat, Steve Haber, David Laitin, Peter Turchin, and Richard Wrangham allowed me to read unpublished work, and, in addition to all the above, Jost Crouwel, Jared Diamond, Niall Ferguson, Victor Hanson, Bob Horn, Paul Kennedy, Karla Kierkegaard, Adrienne Mayor, Josh Ober, Richard Saller, Larry Smith, Mike Smith, Hew Strachan, Barry Strauss, Rob Tempio, and Barry Weingast allowed me to engage them in long conversations, more or less related to the book, that I found fascinating.

  Finally, this book would never have seen the light of day without the encouragement of my agents, Sandy Dijkstra and Arabella Stein, or my editors, Eric Chinski at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Daniel Crewe at Profile. They and their teams have been wonderful to work with in every way.

  INDEX

  Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

  Aachen (Germany), 137

  Abbas, Shah of Persia, 184

  Abbasid caliphate, 131

  Abigail, General Peter, 360

  Acemoglu, Daron, 232

  acquisition, commonwealth by, 16, 40, 71

  Adams, John, 208

  Adams, John Quincy, 358

  Adams, Colonel Thomas, 373, 382

  Aden (Yemen), 193

  Adrianople, 130

  Adwa, Battle of, 221

  Aedui tribe, 78–80

  Afghanistan, 119, 121, 167, 182, 183, 224, 346, 349; British in, 346; Soviet occupation of, 286, 347, 370; U.S.-led invasion and occupation of, 14, 112, 118, 350, 352, 353, 362, 370–72

  Afrikaners, 219

  Agincourt, Battle of, 162–63, 170, 171, 187

  agrarian empires, 118, 121, 132, 142, 162