A World History of War Crimes: From Antiquity to The Present

About the Author Michael Bryant is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Social Sciences at Bryant University, USA. He is the author of Confronting the "Good Death:" Nazi Euthanasia on Trial, 1945-53 (2005) and Eyewitness to Genocide: Jewish Witnesses, West German Courts, and the “Operation Reinhard” Trials, 1956-1966 (2014). Product Description A World History of War Crimes provides a truly global history of war crimes and the involvement of the legal systems faced with these acts. Documenting the long historical arc traced by human efforts to limit warfare, from codes of war in antiquity designed to maintain a religiously conceived cosmic order to the gradual use in the modern age of the criminal trial as a means of enforcing universal norms, this book provides a comprehensive one-volume account of war and the laws that have governed conflict since the dawn of world civilizations. Throughout his narrative, Michael Bryant locates the origin and evolution of the law of war in the interplay between different cultures. While showing that no single philosophical idea underlay the law of war in world history, this volume also proves that war in global civilization has rarely been an anarchic free-for-all. Rather, from its beginnings warfare has been subject to certain constraints defined by the unique needs and cosmological understandings of the cultures that produce them. Only in late modernity has law assumed its current international humanitarian form. The criminalization of war crimes in international courts today is only the most recent development of the ancient theme of constraining when and how war may be fought. Review “A World History of War Crimes is an ambitious project superbly carried through. The grand historical scale and sweep is complemented by Bryant's established expertise at the micro-level of legal history. The result is a clearly-written, authoritative, and ultimately optimistic account of the capacity of humanitarian law to curb some of the worst excesses of conflict. This excellent books merits a wide readership among jurists, political scientists and historians.” ―Donald Bloxham, University of Edinburgh, UK“Michael Bryant's excellent global history of the evolution of the laws of war from antiquity to the present is an outstanding contribution to this emerging field of history and law. Because of his training in these fields, Prof. Bryant brings fresh interpretations to his analysis of the vast collection of primary and secondary sources that he uses throughout this study. It is a must read for anyone interested in the evolution of the laws of war throughout history.” ―David M. Crowe, Professor of History and Law, Elon University, USA Book Description A detailed world history of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.