The Archaeology of War

The book analyses the history of violence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and traces the many situations, images, motifs and sources for this experience of unbounded violence that characterizes our times. 

The 20th century holds many titles that emphasise the extraordinary. It was a century of totalitarianism, but also one of betrayal, an age of extremes and the incomprehensible. Betrayed, that is, at the mercy of unrestrained violence, were not only the people themselves but also, as it were, the idea of the human being. For up to a certain point, one could weigh oneself in an unfounded security of an inner connection between people. As is well known, such certainties were knocked out of hand in that century.

Many situations, many images, motifs and sources can be named for this experience of unbounded violence, which now, at the beginning of the 21st century, requires new forms of transmission. In an era flooded with images, however, attention is more difficult. One has to embark on a search for traces, not because the sources are lacking, but because the form of inscription in history is problematic. This search for clues leads directly to the present monograph.

Introduction: Understanding the Violence; Part I Violence and History, Chapter One War as ‘Becoming’: On the Ontology of Conflict ; Chapter Two The Embodiment of the Victim: Phenomenology of Violence Suffered; Part II Dark Spots in History, Chapter Three Colonial Violence: The Dark Sides of the Modern State; Chapter Four Hate: On the enigma of divisiveness in the age of the total; Chapter Five Disastrous Violence: Ideologies; Chapter Six Politics, Violence and Sacrality; Chapter Seven The Frightening Love of War; Part III Between the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century: The Worldview of Concern; Chapter Eight The Valorative Space in Times of War; Chapter Nine What Does ‘Learning from History’ Mean? On the Implicit Pedagogy of History ; Chapter Ten War Again? The Contribution of Philosophy to the Phenomenon of War ; Chapter Eleven From the Worldview of War to the Worldview of Concern; Bibliography; Index