Great IdeasLiving together
War and its causes
Why nations fight, what war does to people, and how peace is kept.
The question
Why do nations go to war? What does war do to people, and can war ever be just?
How the books answer
Oldest first. Each stop is our own short summary of what the author argued; follow the link to the rung for the whole lesson.
c. 750 BC (from older oral poetry)
Homer, The Iliad
The Iliad is a war poem, full of courage and glory. Yet Homer never forgets the cost: the widows, the orphans, the old fathers. Its last scene is a truce, as Achilles gives back Hector's body to his grieving father.
after 431 BC; unfinished
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides wanted to explain the war, not just tell it. He separates the complaints people gave from what he saw as the true cause: fear of a rising power. He shows how war is a harsh teacher that changes the way people think and even what words mean.
438–405 BC
Euripides, The Trojan Women
Euripides staged The Trojan Women while Athens was at war. It shows no battles at all, only the women of Troy after the city has fallen, waiting to be taken away. The play makes the audience feel war from the side of those who lose everything.
AD 413–426
Augustine of Hippo, The City of God
Augustine believes peace is what every war aims at, even the wars of the wicked. A good person may sometimes have to fight a just war, he argues, but should grieve that it was needed. His thoughts became a starting point for later ideas about just war.
c. 1591–1599
William Shakespeare, Henry V
In Henry V, the king rallies his tired army with stirring speeches. But the night before the battle, in disguise, he hears common soldiers ask who will answer for those who die in an unjust war. Shakespeare shows both the glory and the weight of war.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead.”
1651
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Hobbes describes life without government as a war of each against all, where life is nasty, brutish and short. Competition, fear and pride drive people to fight. Peace, he argues, comes only when all agree to obey a common power.
1781–1789
Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (second half)
Gibbon follows centuries of wars as Rome's empire breaks apart. He shows how armies made and unmade emperors and how invasions wore down the frontiers. In his telling, war wins glory for a few and brings ruin to many.
1865–1869
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Tolstoy sets his novel during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. He argues that great generals do not really control battles: the outcome comes from the choices of countless ordinary people. The novel moves between the chaos of the battlefield and the families waiting at home.
“History, that is, the unconscious, general, hive life of mankind, uses every moment of the life of kings as a tool for its own purposes.”
For young readers
A war is a big fight between countries or groups, with armies. Wars have caused great sadness, but stories about war also tell of courage, friendship and sacrifice.
The great writers ask why wars start: fear, pride, wanting land or wanting to protect people. They also ask how peace can be kept. On a playground, fights often start from fear or pride too, and peace comes when people talk, share and follow fair rules.
Talk about it
- Thucydides said fear caused the war. How can fear make people fight?
- Why do you think The Trojan Women shows no battles?
- Augustine says even wars aim at peace. What do you think he meant?
- Tolstoy thought ordinary people mattered more than generals. Do you agree?
- What helps people make peace after a fight?
Where else on the site
- Causes, Effects and Change Over Time
- Reasoning about Causes
- Turning Points of the War
- The War at Home and the Peace
- Fighting and Making Peace
Every rung tagged with this idea:
These pages are our own short synthesis, written for families. They were inspired by Mortimer J. Adler's Syntopicon, the index of great ideas in volumes 1 and 2 of Great Books of the Western World, but the questions, summaries and groupings are ours, not the Syntopicon's. Short excerpts come from public-domain translations, credited where they appear.