The title doesn't do this book justice. A brilliant vademecum, it traverses 2,500 years of philosophy, political theory and ideology-all those Great Books in one. Subtly and gently, Gat demolishes the ideological verities of our day- postmodernism, 'wokeism', and all. 'Dare to know', as Kant had it: question, gainsay, and don't confuse ideology with truth. When in doubt, go with the Enlightenment
Azar Gat is Ezer Weitzman Professor of National Security in the School of Political Science, Government, and International Affairs at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of nine books, including, more recently: A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War (Oxford, 2001); War in Human Civilization (Oxford, 2006), named one of the best books of the year by the Times Literary Supplement (TLS); Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and How it is still Imperiled (2010); Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism (2013); The Causes of War and the Spread of Peace: But Will War Rebound? (Oxford, 2017); and War and Strategy in the Modern World: From Blitzkrieg to Unconventional Terrorism, (collected articles and essays, 2018). His books have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Greek, Turkish, and Hebrew. He has held visiting positions at Oxford, Yale, Ohio State,
Georgetown, Hoover-Stanford, Freiburg, Munich, and Constance. In 2019 he was awarded the EMET Prize in the fields of Political Science and Strategy. Granted under the auspices of the Prime Minister's office, it is considered Israel's highest scholarly prize.