Barbed Wire: An Ecology of Modernity

by Reviel Netz

In this original and controversial book, historian and philosopher Reviel Netz explores the development of a controlling and pain-inducing technology--barbed wire. Surveying its development from 1874 to 1954, Netz describes its use to control cattle during the colonization of the American West and to control people in Nazi concentration camps and the Russian Gulag. Physical control over space was no longer symbolic after 1874.

This is a history told from the perspective of its victims. With vivid examples of the interconnectedness of humans, animals, and the environment, this dramatic account of barbed wire presents modern history through the lens of motion being prevented. Drawing together the history of humans and animals, Netz delivers a compelling new perspective on the issues of colonialism, capitalism, warfare, globalization, violence, and suffering. Theoretically sophisticated but written with a broad readership in mind, Barbed Wire calls for nothing less than a reconsideration of modernity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Theory, Academic, Environment

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Martin Ortiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a history of barbed wire, this is the history of man learning to cage animals and then himself. Ideas popped out on every page challenging me to revisit the way I see the world. There is nothing dry about this story. It reminds me, if anything of Jared Diamond, a similar book that throws out hundreds of ideas (some pristine, some shaky), but all which forced me to think.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A shocking, simple book, but i'll qualify that.
Netz is interested in the ecology of modernity; the way the shape and materiality of the world shapes us. We are not alone as humans - we are bodies, not god, and our lives depend even now intimately on the lives of animals and water and corn. This was Marx's failure, he argues (a Marxist himself): to imagine that one day humans would conquer entirely the world through our cunning.

Barbed wire made this so. In an interesting beginning, barbed wire came from the need to cheaply and quickly control longhorn cows in the mid west, who had replaced the slaughtered bison. It was the bare minimum of pain and space, and it was very effective. The attention and comparisons between the pain of animals and humans is important in this book.
Then we go to confrontation: barbed wire could only be used in war (WW1, franco-prussian) because it was made cheap from agriculture, because we were used, at that point, to thinking of confinement, large spaces, colonialism (absolute control!) as a project of modernity. The simplicity of barbed wire made tanks and machine guns necessary, not the other way around.

We move finally inevitably to concentration camps: Cuba, Boer, Gulag, Auschwitz. This is upsetting and my main criticism is the morbid, dispassionate pleasure Netz almost seems to take in relating the horrors of these places, although I understand Netz is Jewish and this is not therefore an entirely detached exercise. In doing so we lost the fine point that technology shapes us, and it goes on and on. I would suggest to others reading section 1 and 2 only which have many insights.

Overall an excellent, innovative, strange simple book with a central point about bodies, violence and pain, about the slow building of horror from simple logistics, about technology, colonialism, related philosophically and very readably. In a strange turn I find myself wanting to read more about war and agriculture to see the bodies underneath.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two chapters were quite informative. The chapter comparing the concentration camp regimes of the USSR and Nazi Germany was chock-full of anti-communist cliches that I found grating. "The promise of Marxism—the essence of the promise of modernism—was to enslave nature so as to free humanity." Was it really? Further, this "modernism" is traced back in turn to the Enlightenment division between Nature and Man. This is an oddly idealist turn for a book which began with the natural, spatial, and economic influences that led to the development of barbed wire.

[Viv · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book. The author Reviel Netz examines the development of barbed wire as a technology which both symbolically and materially defined and carried out the violence of the modern era. He elegantly traces the sinister history and horrific material and biological realities of the concentration camps all the way back to changes in North American frontier agricultural practices. Barbed wire, Netz reveals, was originally invented to enclose cows. Preventing the free motion of cows effectively changed the landscape, ecology, and inter-species relationship, he argues, and was its own distinct kind of violence. The ease with which humans exerted mass control of animals within this changed landscape provided a dynamic template for intra-species violence and control (rather than “just” the inter-species violence committed by humans against animals), leading to the horrors of Auschwitz.

This book has had a profound effect on me, both because of the supremely detailed and logical structure of Netz’s argument, which I admire, and because of the implicit angry urgent call for humans to reconsider our relationships among ourselves and among all living species. Netz’s arguments evoked in me a rather emotionally charged ethical and ecological consciousness based on my newfound understanding about the biology and materiality of history.

[Isaac Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

What seems like an uncommon history of an idea- confinement, first in livestock, and then in people- meant for the 20th century.

An interesting study- you can see how different people and countries behave before and after barbed wire. Also brings up the idea that interconnectedness- whether by railroad, phone, or internet, by definition also enables disconnectedness

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The violence and confinement we apply to animals we end up applying to ourselves. A history of enclosing the range, the end of cavalry with guerilla & trench warfare, and concentration camps from Boer to Stalin to Nazis. Tough reading, but many clear re-interpretations of control and exploitation and industrialization implications.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not the biggest fan of non-fiction. As much as I love learning new things, I much prefer to read fiction. I blame the fact that work has me reading – and writing – non-fiction, which means I view fiction as an escape. However, every so often, the topic of a fiction book will grab my attention. Such was the case with this.

I’ll be honest, it is not the first thing I would have picked up. However, it is linked to someone’s research at work in the loosest of possible ways, and they decided to give it a read out of curiosity. It is now being passed around the department because everyone is talking about the interesting things withing the pages. Barbed wire is not something I initially associate with interesting, yet it was intriguing. The book gave me plenty about the history and made me think about it in unexpected ways. I will be honest and admit that there was a bit too much focus on detailing the surrounding history, but that is just because I wanted to focus solely upon the barbed wire information.

All in all, while not my favourite non-fiction read, it was a book that had me intrigued.

[Graham Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful object history and a fantastic read. Netz is particularly good at blending philosophical interpretation with down-to-earth historical analysis. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in object histories, but also those generally interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the material origins of modern capitalism, colonialism, and the strategic implementation of violence that characterizes Netz's modernity.

[Victor Sonkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not that I don't have claims contradicting what Netz says in the book; it's just that it's an absolutely brilliant — and passionate — account of a complex thing it describes. The conclusion, well, I don't agree with. But the story of the invention of barbed wire and its development in history, from Transvaal through Nazi and Stalinist camps is amazing.

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply, one of the best histories that I have ever read. It will change your thoughts on environmental history and the long twentieth century.

[James Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly thought provoking, and a very different way of looking at history: through the story of barbed wire and its use to control space and the beings that occupy it.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remarkably original observations on how and why barbed wire evolved from an agricultural technology on America's Great Plains, through its use in the Great War as an effective barrier, to the quickly erected walls of prisons and concentration camps. For me, the problem with this book is that Netz lacks trust in his readers, and so starts with his most brilliant (and most abstract) conclusions.
Here is the third paragraph: "The ubiquitous presence of potential force is indeed a universal of history. Force, brute or refined, is what societies and histories are built of. Note, however, that with the prevention of motion, force -- in its most literal sense, of applying physical pressure to bodies -- assumes a special kind of necessity. Quite simply, being in a place is something you do with your body -- nothing else -- and therefore, to prevent your motion from one place to another, your body must be affected. The history of the prevention of motion is therefore a history of force upon bodies: a history of violence and pain." (p. xi - xii) and barbed wire hasn't made an appearance. The first paragraph defines lines (open and closed), and the second defines walls, fences, and symbolic boundaries. All this is misplaced, belonging at the end of the argument. Everyone can see from the subtitle that more is coming than tales from Dodge City or catalogs of different ways to create and attach the barbs.
I continued reading because the book was recommended to me, and in turn recommend it very highly to anyone interested in the history of technology or historiography. But be forewarned. The book is like the current state of the U.S. Capitol, a beautiful structure completely defaced both by the superstructure around it and by the disappointing behavior of its inhabitants.

[Bob Reutenauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read. It was assigned by the MOOC I am following : "Paradox of War", led via video lectures from a Princeton sociologist. I'm interested in the these approaches to writing "big history"-- An Ecology of Modernity, sure qualifies!-- by tracing the path of a particular "thing." The best I have read are not from academics like Netz, but from serious narrative non-fiction writers like Kurlansky.. "Salt" and before that "Cod" and Dolan who writes of whaling and later of fur trade. Still, "Barbed wire" is a keeper. I never knew that "Gulag" is an acronym! Random facts. how many millions of miles of barbed wire produced in the USA during WWI. jacket blurb from Noam Chomsky...

[LT · Rating 5 out of 5]

looks at the history of barbed wire, beginning with the colonization of the American west, going into its uses in the Boer War and WWI, and ending with the Holocaust. the style and ideas are truly original and provocative. made me think a lot about the role of technology in history - and particularly technologies that allow control over space. i was lucky enough to read this as part of a book group, and it definitely helped motivate me to finish the book and work through some of the more original ideas it presents. don't miss the epilogue.

[Averin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mentions Sand Creek Massacre.

[Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and, quite often, a horrifying subject. Netz's tone can become grating, though. The definitive, and probably the only, book on barbed wire.