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Martin Shaw 

Dialectics of War 

An Essay in the Social Theory of War and Peace

First edition, London: Pluto Press 1988. 

Out of print: being republished on this site during 2000-01

Contents

Preface. Acknowledgements

1 Critique of Sociology and Military Theory (this chapter now available to download)

  • the failure of social theory
  • the limits of strategic thought
  • the social dialectics of war

2 Military Industrialism and the Phases of Total War

  • industrialised warfare and politicised economics
  • war economies and total war
  • nuclear-war economy

3 The Politics of Total War I: Revolution, Totalitarianism and War

  • revolutionary origins of total war
  • contradictions of mass militarism
  • war as the arbiter of revolution
  • Stalinist totalitarianism and total war; Nazism
  • total war and genocide
  • politics in the second phase of total war
  • revolutionary warfare - its historical limits.

4 The Politics of Total War II: Rise and Fall of the Military-Democratic State

  • 'participation' in total war
  • technology and strategy
  • national experiences in the Second World War
  • crisis of the 'military-democratic' state

5 Beyond the Politics of Total War

  • nuclear militarism and social participation
  • implications for social movements
  • peace politics and socialism
  • the politics of defence
  • a philosophy of 'historical pacifism'

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