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Ride of the Second Horseman: The Birth and Death of War

robert l. o/connell

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"Accurst be he that first invented war," wrote Christopher Marlowe--a declaration that most of us would take as a literary, not literal, construction. But in this sweeping overview of the rise of civilization, Robert O'Connell finds that war is indeed an invention--an institution that arose due to very specific historical circumstances, an institution that now verges on extinction.
In Ride of the Second Horseman , O'Connell probes the distant human past to show how and why war arose. He begins with a definition that distinguishes between war and mere war involves group rather than individual issues, political or economic goals, and direction by some governmental structure, carried out with the intention of lasting results. With this definition, he finds that ants are the only other creatures that conduct it--battling other colonies for territory and slaves. But ants, unlike humans, are driven by their genes; in humans, changes in our culture and subsistence patterns, not our genetic hardware, brought the rise of organized warfare. O'Connell draws on anthropology and archeology to locate the rise of war sometime after the human transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to agriculture, when society split between farmers and pastoralists. Around 5500 BC, these pastoralists initiated the birth of war with raids on Middle Eastern agricultural settlements.
The farmers responded by ringing their villages with walls, setting off a process of further social development, intensified combat, and ultimately the rise of complex urban societies dependent upon warfare to help stabilize what amounted to highly volatile population structures, beset by frequent bouts of famine and epidemic disease. In times of overpopulation, the armies either conquered new lands or self-destructed, leaving fewer mouths to feed. In times of underpopulation, slaves were taken to provide labor. O'Connell explores the histories of the civilizations of ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Assyria, China, and the New World, showing how war came to each and how it adapted to varying circumstances. On the other hand, societies based on trade employed war much more selectively and pragmatically. Thus, Minoan Crete, long protected from marauding pastoralists, developed a wealthy mercantile society marked by unmilitaristic attitudes, equality between men and women, and a relative absence
of class distinctions. In Assyria, by contrast, war came to be an end in itself, in a culture dominated by male warriors.
Despite the violence in the world today, O'Connell finds reason for hope. The industrial revolution broke the old patterns of war no longer serves the demographic purpose it once did. Fascinating and provocative, Ride of the Second Horseman offers a far-reaching tour of human history that suggests the age-old cycle of war may now be near its end.

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 21,1995

This edition

Format
320 pages, Paperback
Published
October 23, 1997 by Oxford University Press
ISBN
9780195119206
ASIN
0195119207
Language
English

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robert l. o/connell

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Profile Image for Kimberly .
azko_licious
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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O'Connell gives a detailed, historically grounded argument that as society evolves, it grows more counterproductive to settle issues by holding mass killing contests. He suggests that war has outlived its usefulness. And indeed it has. Except, we keep turning back to old tricks regardless of how heavily the costs outweigh the benefits.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
10nzin
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Interesting. Provides food for thought. Making use of archaeology and anthropology, O'Connell examines our distant past in an attempt to determine how and why war arose. O'Connell defines war as a specific institution - premeditated and directed by some form of governmental structure; concerned with societal, not individual, issues; featuring the willing (though perhaps not enthusiastic) participation of the combatants; and intended to achieve lasting, not ephemeral, results. He found that the rise of war occurred sometime after the human transition from nomadic hunting/gathering to agriculture, when society split between farmers and pastoralists. Various civilizations in the Middle-East, Egypt, China, India, Crete, Phoenicia, and the New World were examined as examples of the different manner and reasons for warfare. O'Connell also has an interesting hypothesis that since the industrial revolution, war no longer serves the demographic purposes it once did, and warfare should be on its way to extinction. This book was published in 1995, I wonder if the author still thinks this now?
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