Scavengers scoured the same fields for bones, of both men and animals, and shipped millions of bushels to Yorkshire, where they were ground into dust and used for fertilizer. So recounts Margaret MacMillan, the Canadian historian, in “War: How Conflict Shaped Us,” her richly eclectic discussion of how culture and society have been molded by warfare throughout history. “War is waged by men; not beasts, or by gods,” MacMillan writes, quoting Frederic Manning, a poet and novelist of World War I. “War” opens with the story of Ötzi, the prehistoric man whose body was discovered by two hikers in the Italian Alps in 1991. Ötzi was murdered, it appears, and he may have even fought with his killer.

Source: New York Times October 06, 2020 09:00 UTC