Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War [Hardcover]

The second one-half of the book is a history of war, especially war as a "culture shaping force" using, among others, Japan, Nazi Germany, and the United States as examples. Much of the last pages of the book are a gloss on William James' 1906 essay "The Moral Equivalent of War." I recommend that you read the essay to get the essence of Ehrenreich's argument in a more elegantly written and concise form.

"Blood Rites" is worth reading as an introduction to the subject of war. The author has some interesting insights, with thought-provoking food for thought and tantalizing details in her mini-history of war. However, her analysis and the evidence she presents is thin, and she really doesn't persuade effectively. All in all, I won't give this book top ranking because the author , although competent, doesn't demonstrate any truly deep or insightful knowledge about her subject.

Starting from biology, Ehrenreich calls on experts from many disciplines, "soft" and "hard," as she lays out her case. This is both promising and perilous. A great deal of reading and study has gone in to this book, as is evident from her many citations. It would require an expertise deeper and broader than mine to assess whether she has truly "done her homework." What I found lacking, at times, was a sense of the contrast between her thesis and what had come before it. Is she synthesizing the likes of Toynbee, Weber, Fichte, Hegel, and the many others she mentions, or is she overturning them? I did not always get a clear sense of where previous thinkers had gone wrong on the topics she addresses.

In the end, this is not a damning criticism; a reader geninely interested in the issues covered in this book will find a deep mine of additional reading in Ehrenreich's index and bibliography. This book is represents a seemingly fresh start on a matter of great human importance.

Her research led her to link killing and war to ritual and sacrifice and how religion and the sacrificial nature of war continues to act as a legitimaizing agent pitting the proverbial "us" against "them". Using texts such as Gilgamesh, the Bible, ancient Japanese and Greek poetry and other texts she points out a common link of fear of the unknown as viewed by the ancients in beasts, women, and nature.

A flaw though in her tone is that it gets a tad repetative and it seems as though she uses the old academic trick of pulling from a variety of sources to make smaller points that coincide with her overall thesis. You eventually see what she is getting act but when she goes back and forth, say from the Inquisition to the Aztecs to Aborginies in each paragraph it tends to be cumbersome.

Don't overlook this one. It brings together recent texts such as 'A History of Toture' and 'Male Fantasies' with a concise passion for the subject matter.