Description
Book SynopsisThere are many histories of how wars have begun, but very few which discuss how they have ended. This book fills that gap. Beginning with the Stone Age and ending with globalized terrorism, it addresses the specific issue of surrender, rather than the subsequent establishment of peace. At its heart is the individual warrior or soldier, and his or her decision to lay down arms. In the ancient world surrender led in most cases to slavery, but a slave still lived rather than died. In the modern world international law gives the soldiers rights as prisoners of war, and those rights include the prospect of their eventual return home. But individuals can surrender at any point in a war, and without having such an effect that they end the war. The termination of hostilities depends on a collective act for its consequences to be decisive. It also requires the enemy to accept the offer to surrender in the midst of combat. In other words, like so much else in war, surrender depends on reciprocit
Trade Review[the] accumulation of research remains admirably comprehensive and it can serve as a highly valuable reference work as well as a volume of stimulating and thought-provoking essays. It certainly demands to be widely cited. Thus with some twenty-seven leading scholars covering the period from prehistoric tribal societies to modern-day terrorism, this impressive volume clearly fills an important gap. Sean McGlynn, History
Table of ContentsPART I: NO QUARTER? THE BEGINNINGS OF SURRENDER; PART II: LEARNING TO SURRENDER? THE MIDDLE AGES; PART III: THE DEVELOPMENTS OF RULES AND REGULATIONS: SURRENDER IN EARLY MODERN TIMES; III.A. SURRENDER IN INTERCULTURAL WARS; III.B.: SURRENDER IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE; PART IV: A QUESTION OF HONOUR: SURRENDER IN SEA WARFARE; PART V: THE TIMES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: SURRENDER IN MODERN WARS; V.A. THE 19TH CENTURY; V.B. SURRENDER IN WORLD WAR I; PART VI: UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER? WORLD WAR II; VI A. 'CONVENTIONAL' SURRENDERS; VI B. GERMANY AND JAPAN IN WORLD WAR II; PART VII: OUR TIMES: ASYMMETRIC WARS - ENDLESS WARS AND NO SURRENDER?
