Philip Dwyer - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Books by Philip Dwyer

• In Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature, there is a before and an after. Before the ... more • In Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature, there is a before and an after. Before the Enlightenment, the world was superstitious, cruel, and violent; after the Enlightenment , the world was rational and more peaceful. Pinker thus reduces violence to a fairly simplistic concept: all violence can be equated with irrationality, unreason, and ignorance. History is never as straightforward as Pinker would have his readers believe, and violence is a much more complex notion that is often driven not by superstition or unreason, but perfectly " rational " motives. This article argues that there is little causal connection between Enlightenment values and the decline in violence and that changes came about as a result of a complex series of reasons, some of them less than edifying. It raises the interesting question of whether ideas drive history, or whether they are simply the " ideological " bed-rock on which change is grounded.

Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power

Theatres of Violence: Massacre, Mass Killing and Atrocity throughout History

Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769 - 1799

Napoleon: The Path to Power

The French Revolution and Napoleon: a Sourcebook

... Bonaparte. While bringing the impact of historical events to life, Philip Dwyer and Peter McP... more ... Bonaparte. While bringing the impact of historical events to life, Philip Dwyer and Peter McPhee provide a clear outline of the period through the selection of key documents, lucid introductory passages and com-mentary. They ...

The Rise of Prussia: Rethinking Prussian History, 1700-1830

Modern Prussian History, 1830-1947

Retour page d'accueil Chercher, sur, Tous les supports. Retour page d'accueil, Plus de ... more Retour page d'accueil Chercher, sur, Tous les supports. Retour page d'accueil, Plus de 1.620.000 de titres à notre catalogue ! Notice. ...

Papers by Philip Dwyer

A Global History of Early Modern Violence, ed. Erica Charters, Marie Houllemare and Peter H. Wilson

The English Historical Review

Violence: A Very Short Introduction

Violence: A Very Short Introduction examines the physical acts of violence in the modern world, d... more Violence: A Very Short Introduction examines the physical acts of violence in the modern world, describing it as one of humanity’s most enduring traits and a phenomenon that all cultures and societies share. It also traces the long history of violence and disputes the claim that it is diminishing. This VSI discusses different aspects of violence and diverse attitudes towards violence in the past and present. It talks about violence in cultural, social, economic, and political contexts. However, it also points out that not all groups or individuals are equally violent, nor does violence exist with the same intensity across societies.

The Darker Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker and the nature of violence in history

The Darker Angels of Our Nature, 2021

Guy Westwell, war cinema: Hollywood on the front line (book review)

Whitewashing History

On Violence in History, 2020

Rasmus Glenthoj and Morten Nordhagen Ottosen, Experiences of War and Nationality in Denmark and Norway, 1807-1815

European History Quarterly, 2016

Book Review: Untersuchungen zum Gleichgewicht der Machte in der Au enpolitik Friedrichs des Gro en nach dem siebenjahrigen Krieg (1763-1786)

German History, 1999

Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power

Theatres of Violence: Massacre, Mass Killing and Atrocity throughout History

Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769 - 1799

Napoleon: The Path to Power

The French Revolution and Napoleon: a Sourcebook

The Rise of Prussia: Rethinking Prussian History, 1700-1830

Modern Prussian History, 1830-1947

A Global History of Early Modern Violence, ed. Erica Charters, Marie Houllemare and Peter H. Wilson

The English Historical Review

Violence: A Very Short Introduction

The Darker Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker and the nature of violence in history

The Darker Angels of Our Nature, 2021

Guy Westwell, war cinema: Hollywood on the front line (book review)

Whitewashing History

On Violence in History, 2020

Rasmus Glenthoj and Morten Nordhagen Ottosen, Experiences of War and Nationality in Denmark and Norway, 1807-1815

European History Quarterly, 2016

Book Review: Untersuchungen zum Gleichgewicht der Machte in der Au enpolitik Friedrichs des Gro en nach dem siebenjahrigen Krieg (1763-1786)

German History, 1999

The purpose of this study is to analyse the role played by Prussia during the Second Armed Neutra... more The purpose of this study is to analyse the role played by Prussia during the Second Armed Neutrality. In contrast to traditional interpretations of this period, an attempt is made to prove that the Prussian government's actions were not a result of its subordination to France and Russia, but rather that it acted with its own territorial and foreign policy interests in mind. After an examination of the characters most involved in the formulation of foreign policy, namely the King Friedrich Wilhelm III, his Foreign Minister Haugwitz, and certain members of the Geheimkabinett, there follows an outline of Prussia's foreign policy before 1800, and a summary of Prussia's foreign policy objectives during this period. Before going into Prussia's involvement in the Armed Neutrality, a brief résumé of the circumstances and the foreign policies of the other major participants leading to the formation of the maritime alliance is given. Then an examination is made of Haugwitz&#3...

The Cambridge World History of Violence

‘Savage Wars of Peace’: Violence, Colonialism and Empire in the Modern World

Violence has always been central to the complex histories of empire that reach back over four cen... more Violence has always been central to the complex histories of empire that reach back over four centuries of the ‘modern era’. As an integral part of the social, legal, economic and gendered foundations on which colonial relations were built, violence was diffuse, multi-layered and enormously variable. Yet although the foundational role of violence in the process of empire-building is now widely accepted, we still need to pay closer attention to the structural relationship between colonialism, empire and violence beyond individual, spectacular moments in imperial history. This chapter considers colonial violence in a comparative context in order to identify some of its shared expressions, technologies and legacies.

War Stories, 2016

The article presents an analysis of the innovation activities of the regions of the Republic of K... more The article presents an analysis of the innovation activities of the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan, identifies the reasons that impede the formation of the innovation environment, in which the components of growth of regional competitiveness are still poorly developed. General approaches to the formation of the term "innovative environment" are analyzed. The authors of the article noted that the solution to the problem of forming an effective innovation environment lies in two interrelated planes, caused, firstly, by the need to create external conditions conducive to innovation development, which include a combination of institutions and organizations in the structure of national innovation systems. Secondly, the presence of objective prerequisites for the transition to an innovative development path for business entities. Particular attention is also paid to the use of competitive advantages of the regions of Kazakhstan. The authors suggested ways to create an effective innovation environment and improve the innovation partnership of all participants: the state, business, science and education. In assessing the innovation activity of the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan, these indicators were used: expenditures on research and development, expenditures on technological innovations, output of innovative products per person in the region, etc., based on the results of the research a SWOT analysis was conducted, a model of innovative development of the enterprise was proposed, where the general strategic goals of the enterprise and the main directions of innovative development would be agreed.

The Darker Angels of Our Nature, 2021

Historical Reflections-reflexions Historiques, 2018

I n the closing months of 2011, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker pub- lished The Better Angels ... more I n the closing months of 2011, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker pub- lished The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes. Weighing in at over eight hundred closely printed pages, Pinker's book advances a bold, revisionist thesis: despite the relentless deluge of violent, sensationalist stories in the pervasive electronic media of our day, Pinker proposes, violence in the human world, in nearly every form, has in fact declined dramatically. Over the past several thousand years, and particularly since the eighteenth century, homicides, criminal assaults, war casualties, domestic violence, child abuse, animal abuse, capital punishment, lynching, and rape have all been steadily diminishing in frequency. This might at fi rst seem illogical given that an estimated 160-180 million people were killed as a direct result of war and genocide-consider World Wars I and II, the Holocaust, Stalin's Russia, Mao's China, and Pol Pot's Cambodia-but Pinker argues that killing as a per capita estimate was much higher in previous centuries. Indeed, it appears to have been higher the further one goes back in time, so that nonstate societies in earlier centuries had death rates of anywhere between 0 and 60 percent, with an average of 15 percent, while the total number of overall deaths in the twentieth century represents an overall death rate of only 3 percent. To buttress this original argument, the author assembled countless statistical "data sets" and over a hundred charts and graphs. With a thesis so novel and counterintuitive, presented in a tone of such self-assurance, Pinker's book attracted a great deal of attention upon its appearance several years ago. In the United States and United Kingdom, the initial coverage included lengthy discussions in venues such as the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, the American Scholar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, the Spectator, Slate, the Huffi ngton Post, Scientifi c American, Foreign Policy, and the Daily Telegraph. A number of publications ran follow-up articles. The current Wikipedia entry for Pinker's tome, which canvasses both praise for and criticism of the book, quotes from 30 reviews. 2 In these early assessments, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, theologians, scientists, foreign policy experts, philosophers, and popular science writers, as well as public intellectuals, all had their say.

Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Beihefte, 2019

Citizen Emperor. Napoleon in Power

Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2014

‘It Still Makes Me Shudder’

War in History, 2009

This article looks at a number of French testimonies of massacres during the Revolutionary and Na... more This article looks at a number of French testimonies of massacres during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars committed by combatants, for the most part against civilians. Much of what we know about massacres is based on personal testimonies that are invariably from the perspective of the perpetrator, in this case, troops of the Grande Armée. Just as important as understanding why massacres occurred is to understand how they were represented, recalled and remembered by those who witnessed them. In this, memoirs become an indispensable tool for what they tell us about how the killings were justified, either from the individual or the state’s point of view, and for the insights one can glean into the minds of those that either committed or witnessed the atrocities taking place. Descriptions of massacres are commonly used to highlight the horror of war rather than the horror of the event itself. Massacre was also a means of underlining the difficulties encountered by the French in con...

Violence and the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars: massacre, conquest and the imperial enterprise

Journal of Genocide Research, 2013

ABSTRACT

Napoleon and the Foundation of the Empire

The Historical Journal, 2010

ABSTRACTHistorians generally discount the advent of the First French Empire as the result of Napo... more ABSTRACTHistorians generally discount the advent of the First French Empire as the result of Napoleon's personal ambition. Napoleon, however, could not have brought about the transition from republic to empire without wide support, not only among the political and military elite, but also among the French people. This article re-examines the reasons why, a little more than ten years after the execution of Louis XVI, moderate-conservative elements in the political elite opted for a monarchical-style political system, and why it was so widely accepted by ordinary people across France. It does so by examining the arguments in favour of empire in three ‘sites of ideas’: the neo-monarchists in Napoleon's entourage; the political elite, preoccupied with many of the same concerns that had plagued France since 1789; and the wider political nation, which expressed a manifest adhesion to Napoleon as emperor that was marked by an affective bond. The push to empire, it is argued, was an...