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quest

The experience of war is often viewed today as an experience of revelation. War

disillusions or enlightens people, transforms their personality, and changes their

understanding of the world. Ten minutes of combat are often enough to teach peoplewhat decades of peacetime cannot. Those who did not undergo the extreme

experiences of war can never understand its lessons. This view of war may seem

ancient and universal. Yet, it emerged in the West only between 174 and 1!"#, due to

the $nlightenment and %omanticism and their novel ideas about &nowledge,

experience, and the relations between body and mind. The emergence of this view was

one of the &ey components in an unprecedented military revolution. The new

perception of war as revelation transformed not only the experience and culture of war,

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but also war politics, the status of the common soldiers, and the tenets of military

theory.

Select Publications:

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (London: Harvill Secker, 20!"#

 $%e &ltimate 'perience: Battle)eld *evelations and t%e +akin of +odern -ar

.ulture, !/02000 (Houndmills: Palrave+acmillan, 2001"#

Armc%airs, .o3ee and Aut%ority: 'ye4itnesses and 5les%4itnesses Speak

about -ar, 0020006, $%e 7ournal of +ilitary History 8!: (7anuary 200", pp#

/981#