What Is War?: Philosophical Reflections About the Nature, Causes, and Persistence of Wars

What Is War? asks us to look honestly at the hard questions about war: Why do nations go to war? Is war ever just? What attitudes or actions is it reasonable to expect of the men and women we send to war?Using an innovative combination of story and discussion, Lowell Tollefson makes a difficult subject accessible. He draws on his background as a philosopher, on Marine Corps history, and on his own experience as a Marine to distinguish between the rhetoric and the realities of war.What Is War? has important implications for how we as a nation evaluate past wars and how we view current as well as future conflicts.