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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