War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics

by Bruce D. Porter

As Publishers Weekly notes, “Porter, a political scientist at Brigham Young University, demonstrates that wars have been catalysts for increasing the size and power of Western governments since the Renaissance. The state’s monopoly of effective violence has diminished not only individual rights and liberties, but also the ability of local communities and private associates to challenge the centralization of authority. Porter’s originality lies in his thesis that war, breaking down barriers of class, gender, ethnicity, and ideology, also contributes to meritocracy, mobility, and, above all, democratization. Porter also posits the emergence of the “Scientific Warfare State,” a political system in which advanced technology would render obsolete mass participation in war. This provocative study merits wide circulation and serious discussion.”

Genres: Politics, History, Military Fiction, Military History, War, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more succinct reviewer might sum this book up as: "War sucks and all the best countries wouldn't be where they are today without it". That pretty much says it all.
Wait. We're liberal democracies with vast freedoms and all that crap. How can we find our roots in the post-medieval militarism of the last 500 years? It's the rest of the (non-Western) world that are shocking in their apparently unlimited capacity for acting shitty! Right? Right. And wrong. You can call yourself whatever you want, Sweden. Or France. Or Russia. Oh yes, and most especially and probably most obviously, Murrica. Without war to fashion and shape you, you'd be much different places.
And by war, we don't just mean War, huh, Good god! We mean war. As in civil wars which Porte puts much onus on here. You don't have to be at war to be at war, he reminds us, highlighting the fledgling Soviet state, early Revolutionary France and, oh yes, most especially, the United States, whose penchant for and skill at war was forged largely by the war of North vs South.
There's a lot of meat here and many themes: military stuff itself, bureaucratism, welfare states (no, not like that, shut up), totalitarianism, and so on. All this Porter invokes to show that "modern" states were steeped in and still are military traditions that shaped them. We wouldn't be where we are now without war, and war sucks, folks. The implications could be understood by a child.

[Thomas Bivens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of the great "myth smashers". Instead of a "I will beat you over the head with this book until you agree with me", this book slowly builds its case by telling the story of the growth of the modern state.
Through the use of empirical evidence does not use theory to construct facts, but facts to construct theory.

Why was Switzerland, among the first countries to grant universal manhood suffrage, but didn't grant women the right to vote until the 1970's?

The answer is guns and Porter elaborates effectively on why this is the case.

Other questions this books answer are:

What is the difference between militias,mercenaries, and national armies in terms of political economy?

What effect did wars have on taxation systems?

Was WWI really an "interruption" in Woodrow Wilson's reform of Government?


In terms of overall thesis, Porter makes a clear case the modern states are created,to use Bismarck's phrase,"...through Blood and Iron...".Forget what you may have heard about the State growing and changing through some sort of political "consensus", Porter makes it abundantly clear that "... war has been the primary impetus behind the growth and development of the central state. It has been the lever by which presidents and other national officials have bolstered the power of the state in the face of tenacious popular resistance....".

Porter avoids value judgements towards, and assumptions of, the reader's political disposition. He does provide a "warning label" to those deeply invested in the major political camps. Liberals ignore the wartime origins of the programs and concepts that define the modern welfare state.Conservatives who cheer the size and scope of the warfare state, forget that war is the biggest government program of them all.


When I finished the book, I realized that the "Welfare State vs Warfare State" debate that exists is a charade. "Guns vs Butter" is a phony scenario because the modern state provides both guns and butter, and Porter lays out exactly why that is the case..

What keeps this book from being a perfect 5 is that it only focuses mostly on modern western civilization. Someone interested in the growth of the states of other world regions(Latin America,Africa, and Asia) might ignore this book. However, the Westphalian nation-state is the global template(even with modern philosophical influences like marxism, which is western in origin).

A must-have for anyone interested in history.

[Michael Newbold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It's definitely an academic read but kept my interest. It covers both interesting historical points but also brings up trends that make me reevaluate our current society.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prophetic

[Colm Gillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The purpose of this book was to show how war has shaped democratic institutions, inculcated notions of equality, tolerance & socialism, developed bureaucracies, shaped political unity, & generally has performed the tasks often ascribed to humanism & enlightenment. This was the aim & this aim was achieved admirably. The book has a ground-breaking feel to it - there are very few books which will unite the mechanics of violence with the fruits of human creativity. Porter mostly provides a lens into the state by citing examples, he provides certain theories to explain certain anomalies, some weaker & some stronger than others. The book does not have a logical structure but is well written although the author makes some amateurish attempts to lighten the prose. Overall I would give this book high marks for its bravery in tackling a difficult subject & buttressing the thesis with a wealth of evidence.

[Eleanore · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly good summary of political scholarship on this subject over the past several decades. Michael Porter has also successfully mastered the art of writing and incorporating interesting historical narrative without vitiating either his own narrative or, more importantly, historical understanding. An excellent overview for anyone who is interested in this subject!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy's pretty funny, and his theory is good too. There sure are a lot of theories that talk about why this state is organized this way and that state another way. These theories are misguided, Porter says, in so far as they neglect to account for war and its role in shaping power relations between people and their government.