<iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-K3L4M3" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden">

Books

What makes mankind behave so atrociously? Ian Buruma and Joanna Bourke investigate

Two books tackle the subject of violence in strikingly different ways

6 December 2014

9:00 AM

6 December 2014

9:00 AM

Theater of Cruelty: Art, Film and the Shadows of War Ian Buruma

NYRB, pp.425, £19.99, ISBN: 9781590177778

Wounding the World: How Military Violence and War-Play Invade Our Lives Joanna Bourke

Virago, pp.320, £20, ISBN: 9780349004327

The first interaction between two men recorded in the Bible involves a murder. In the earliest classic of English literature, one of the murderer’s descendants has his arm ripped from its socket by a young warrior who celebrates his gruesome victory by drinking himself blotto; the next day, our hero wakes up (not hungover, apparently) and kills his opponent’s mother.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Black Friday sale

Subscribe today and get 10 weeks of The Spectator Australia for just $1

  • Unlimited access to spectator.com.au and app
  • The weekly edition on the Spectator Australia app
  • Spectator podcasts and newsletters
  • Full access to spectator.co.uk
Or

Unlock this article

REGISTER

'Theater of Cruelty: Art, Film and the Shadows of War', £15.99 and 'Wounding the World: How Military Violence and War-Play Invade Our Lives', £17 are available from the Spectator Bookshop. Tel: 08430 600033

 

You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it. Try your first month for free, then just $2 a week for the remainder of your first year.


Comments

Black Friday sale

Subscribe today and get 10 weeks of The Spectator Australia for just $1

Already a subscriber? Log in

Close