Society's "love of battle" will be explored this semester in a new Smith Richardson Lecture Series sponsored by International Security Studies.
In the series, titled "Loving Battle: Warrior Cultures from Homer to the Gulf War," 12 speakers from Yale and universities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom will address such questions as: Why do men fight, and to what extent does fighting control male identity? Is "love of battle" in a given time and place limited to a warrior subculture, or is it essential to the larger society, including women? Are such emotions based on a romanticization of battle, or is it possible to exult in warfare while recognizing the reality of pain, suffering and destruction?
The talks, which are free and open to the public, will be held on consecutive Mondays Sept. 9-Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. in Levinson Auditorium of the Law School, 127 Wall St. The first lecture, titled "Patterns of Human Violence," will be presented by William H. McNeil, an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago and author of the books "Keeping Together in Time: Dancing and Drill in Human History" and "The Pursuit of Power."
Other speakers in the series will examine such cultures as classical Greek, Mayan, Chinese, medieval European, and the Japanese Samurai, as well the warrior culture of horse nomads of Central Asia. Other topics to be examined include air war, the 18th-century British Navy, the Confederacy in the American Civil War, the present-day American Armed Forces and modern Germany's stance on war.
For more information on the series, call Professor Thomas Arnold at 432-7657 or Ann Carter-Drier at 432-6246.