On Wars

Michael Mann is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, UCLA. He is the author of many influential works, including his landmark Sources of Social Power series, whose first volume was written while teaching in Essex. He has also written Incoherent Empire; The Dark Side of Democracy; and Does Capitalism Have a Future? Professor Mann has worked at Cambridge University, the University of Essex, and the London School of Economics, and has held many visiting professorships. He is an elected fellow of both the British and American Academies.

Leading sociologist, Professor Michael Mann, will speak about his new book ‘On Wars’ (Yale University Press). The book offers a bold historical and conceptual account of past and recent conflicts across the world and the irrational calculations that so often lie behind them. Professor Mann suggests that decisions for war or peace are almost always made by small coteries of rulers and their entourages, even in democracies, and that most decisions are greatly swayed by emotions, ideologies, and taken-for granted cultures and institutions "baked in" by prior history . Thus he rejects both the aggressive and the defensive variants of realism dominant in recent political science explanations of war.

The event is co-hosted by the Department of Sociology and Department of Government and is open to all.