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The Study of Man: “Understanding National Character”—and War
- Abstract
AS THE scale of international wars has grown, styles in the analysis of their causes have shifted. In the era before World War I, wars were said to have been caused by rival governments protecting private investors in “backward” areas. Between the two world wars the munitions makers were blamed, along with the nations we used to call the “have-nots,” who were envious of the “haves.” More recently, corresponding to the efflorescence of the “cultural” sciences of sociology, anthropology, and social psychology, wars are ascribed to the “misunderstandings” between peoples, to the “tensions” that arise because of differences in “national character.”
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