University News

WIU History Professors Examine the History of War in New Book

July 31, 2024

Printer friendly version

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL - - A pair of Western Illinois University professors in collaboration with Marine Corps University Press published a new book focused on how warfare has evolved over various eras and how it has impacted the globe.

"The Boundaries of War: Local and Global Perspectives in Military History" is a collection of scholarly essays edited and published by Tim Roberts, WIU History professor and department chair, and Lee L. Brice, professor emeritus of History. The book looks at military history from ancient Greece to the Korean War and examines if warfare is local or if there are global, timeless patterns in these conflicts.

Brice and Roberts discuss how much military historians should focus on local or idiosyncratic factors to explain their subject matter and whether they should consider global phenomena in their research.

""Boundaries of War" questions the assumption that past wars were clashes between unique racial or cultural civilizations, and instead exposes how different warmaking societies learned from one another," Roberts said. "The book helped me, as an historian of the United States, think more about the old idea of our national exceptionalism. In American society today we see the development of a powerful, professional military, with its own codes of conduct and values. We hope that the book can help explain military institutions to civilians, and remind military audiences that civilian norms shape war-making. In showing why and how military conflicts happened in the past, the book seeks to learn from their patterns, ideally to avoid their excesses."

The book draws on research presented at a 2023 international conference the History department organized on WIU's Quad Cities campus, which was supported by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Provost.

To find the book, visit bit.ly/4ccZruO and for more information on the WIU history department, visit wiu.edu/history/.

Posted By: Aaron Viner (AP-Viner@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing