Summary of John W. Dower's The Violent American Century

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 The so-called postwar peace was, and still is, saturated in blood and wracked with suffering. It is reasonable to argue that total war-related fatalities during those Cold War decades were lower than in the six years of World War II, and far less than the toll for the twentieth century’s two world wars combined.

#2 The idea that the long postwar era is an epoch of relative peace is disingenuous. It ignores the fact that the United States has contributed to, rather than impeded, militarization and mayhem after 1945.

#3 The difficulty of assessing the toll of civil, tribal, ethnic, and religious conflicts is obvious. The same is true of politicides, which range from millions of mass deaths caused by government policies to tens of thousands of more selective political murders by authoritarian regimes.

#4 Figures and tables can only hint at the psychological and social violence suffered by combatants and noncombatants alike. It has been suggested that one in six people in areas affected by war may suffer from mental disorder, compared to one in ten in normal times.