Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War by Barbara EhrenreichReview by: Eliot A. CohenForeign Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Mar. - Apr., 1998), p. 146Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20048809 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 09:32

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.34 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:32:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recent Books

2002 and the enlargement of the European Union by up to 13 additional countries. En

largement will require significant changes in how the eu operates and even greater

adjustments in the economies and societies

of successful applicants. Agenda 2000

sketches these challenges and makes pro

posals for policy change through 2006. It

has both the advantages and disadvantages of an official document: sometimes deaden

ing committee prose, but for that reason an

authoritative voice. The book discusses the

five first-round candidates and Cyprus but

suggests other countries maybe close be

hind. Turkey is treated judiciously. Because

the treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam

extend the eu far beyond economics, much

space is devoted to social issues, crime, jus

tice, the environment, and nuclear safety, as

well as the well-known matters requiring

major adaptation, especially the eu budget and the Common Agricultural Policy. The amount of space devoted to noneconomic

issues is indicative of the distance the eu

has moved past a mere common market,

although economic issues remain at the

core of the eus decision-making.

Military, Scientific, and Technological

ELIOT A. COHEN

Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. by barbara

ehrenreich. New York: Metropolitan

Books, 1997,292 PP- $25-?? This book is one of a number of recent

studies that have revived the anti

Clausewitzian view of war. War is not

about politics; rather, it is a primitive,

essentially male phenomenon?a "blood

rite." The book begins with an indict

ment of the great Prussian theorist for

supposedly believing that war is "an en

tirely rational undertaking, unsullied by human emotion." The author appears not to have read Clausewitz, who spent a

good part of his masterwork, On War,

talking about fear, hatred, responsibility, and ambition. Ehrenreich's misattribu

tion points to one of the central problems of her book, namely, its sheer ignorance of military history. Well read in anthro

pology and sociology, willing to speculate and generalize, she assumes, rather

than proves, an essential identity of

human type between Gilgamesh and Norman Schwarzkopf.

Women Warriors: A History, by david e.

jones. Washington: Brassey's, 1997,

279 pp. $24.95. The author, an anthropologist and mar

tial arts instructor, wishes to establish

that women make just as fine killers as

do men. He does so by assembling hun

dreds of stories of women proficient in

slaughter, or at least avid for it. Collec

tions of stories do not, however, a theory make. The inescapable fact remains that

in the vast majority of societies women

have not participated and do not rou

tinely participate in combat, save in the

last resort. The numerous exceptions cited here, while interesting (and on

occasion horrifying) do not prove a rule.

The author tends to dismiss or ignore evidence contrary to his core proposition? the Israel Defense Forces, for example,

To order any book reviewed or advertised in Foreign Affairs, can 800-255-2665.

[146] FOREIGN AFFAIRS-Volume 77 No. 2

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.34 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 09:32:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions