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Hello, the historian Edward Gibbon wrote,

Every age, however destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of

blood and military renown.

War, it seems, is one of mankind's most constant companions, one that has blighted

the lives and troubled the minds of men and women from antiquity onwards.

Plato and visions a society without war, but found it had no arts, no culture, and no political system.

War was often thought as desirable.

It's peace which is now desirable.

But how has war been understood through the ages,

who's it served, and how has it been justified? Is war inherent to

human beings or could society be organized to the exclusion of all conflict?

With me to discuss the thought and history of war, Sir Michael Howard,

emeritus professor of modern History at the University of

Oxford, Angie Hobbs, lecturing philosophy at the University of Warwick and Jeremy Black,

Professor of History at the University of Exeter.

Angie Hobbs, war featured greatly in Greek,

I think, in a sense the foundation of our literature

is the great war book in the ad.

Can you just say what Homer said in around 800

BC about war in that book. Yes, right from the very beginning

...