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Kenneth Waltz’s Man, the State, and War , a classic book first published in 1959, has become a cornerstone in international relations theory and is widely regarded as one of the most influential works.

Waltz was a renowned American political scientist, highly regarded for his contributions to international relations. His extensive scholarship and prolific writing, which includes books such as  Theory of International Politics  and  The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate , continue to be widely read and cited today.

Through his work, Waltz provided valuable insights into the causes of war, the dynamics of the international system, and the role of nuclear weapons in international politics, thus leaving an unforgettable mark on the discipline of international relations.

Kenneth Waltz: Author of 'Man, the State, and War'

In this book, Waltz puts forth his theory of international politics, known as “Neo-Realism” or “Structural Realism,” which emphasizes the roles of individuals, states, and the international system in shaping the nature of war and peace.

Waltz’s work is often credited with developing the realist school of thought in international relations. His argument that international anarchy creates a self-help system among states that leads to conflict has been a key tenet of realism ever since.

Waltz’s Neo-Realism: A Theory of International Relations

Waltz asserts that the root causes of war are predominantly structural rather than individual or psychological, and states’ conduct is largely determined by their position in the international system.

Central to his argument is the concept of an anarchic international system, which lacks a central authority to impose regulations or preserve order. In such a system, states are driven to seek security by acquiring power, which can increase the likelihood of conflict.

According to Waltz, human nature is essentially fixed and unalterable, and wars result from states’ interaction with each other in the context of an anarchic international system. This perspective challenges traditional explanations that focus on individual leaders’ personalities or beliefs, instead highlighting the systemic factors that underpin conflict between states.

Anarchy, Power, and Nuclear Weapons: The Surprising Link in Understanding the Root Causes of War

The first part of the book explores the individual-level causes of war, including psychological factors such as fear and greed. Waltz states that while these factors can contribute to the outbreak of war, they are insufficient to explain the frequency and pattern of war over time. Other variables, such as the international system, exert a more substantial influence.

Likewise, the author argues that humans tend towards violence and aggression and that this tendency is not limited to individuals but extends to states as well.

In the second part, Waltz shifts his focus to the state and explores how the structure of the state affects international relations. He debates that the structure of the state is determined by its level of centralization.

He argues that the structure of a state plays a crucial role in determining its ability to engage in foreign policy and international conflict.

More centralized states tend to be better positioned to conduct effective foreign policy and mobilize resources for national defense. In contrast, states with a more decentralized and fragmented structure may struggle to pursue a consistent foreign policy, making them less competitive within the international system.

Waltz’s insights suggest that the structure of a state can significantly impact the balance of power within the international system and potentially lead to a less stable global equilibrium.

The third and final part of the book delves into the nature of war and its relationship to the international system. Waltz indicates that war is a result of the anarchic nature of the international system in which there exists no overarching authority to prevent conflict.

The book stands out for its remarkable ability to synthesize various ideas and theories into a coherent framework. It posits that anarchy within the international system is the principal cause of war. The absence of a central authority or government in the international system subjects states to constant insecurity, leading them to compete for power and security.

The level of analysis utilized plays a critical role in understanding international relations. Waltz maintains that the conduct of states can only be comprehended by examining the level of the international system rather than that of the individual or domestic realm. In other words, the structure of the international system largely determines states’ behavior.

States are rational actors that pursue their self-interest. Their motivations are driven by their quest for power and security, and they will act in their best interest to attain these objectives. Following this rationale, Waltz asserts that nuclear weapons exert a stabilizing influence on the international system. They create a deterrent effect, making states less inclined to engage in aggressive conduct.

Beyond Neorealism: Unpacking the Limitations of Waltz’s Theory and Exploring Alternative Perspectives in International Relations

Waltz’s arguments are undoubtedly insightful and thought-provoking, and they have had a significant impact on international relations. However, his emphasis on the role of the international system in shaping state behavior overlooks the crucial role of domestic factors. By excessively emphasizing the international system as the primary determinant of state behavior, Waltz fails to consider the impact of political institutions, culture, and ideology in shaping state actions.

For instance, if we talk about the Cold War, the actions of the Soviet Union cannot be explained solely by its position in the international system; domestic factors also played a significant role.

The Soviet Union was founded on Marxist-Leninist principles, and the ruling Communist Party saw its mission as spreading communist ideology worldwide. This drove the USSR’s support for communist movements and regimes worldwide and fueled its opposition to Western capitalism and imperialism.

It is difficult to explain the USSR’s actions without considering its ideology and domestic politics. Also, the Soviet Union was a one-party state, and the Communist Party controlled all aspects of political and social life. Domestic political considerations, therefore, had a major hand in shaping Soviet foreign policy.

However, some scholars point out that Soviet leaders had little choice but to pursue aggressive foreign policies, given the threat posed by the US and its allies. While this argument has some merit, it overlooks the extent to which Soviet domestic politics influenced foreign policy decision-making.

Furthermore, with regard to the author’s argument on the stabilizing effect of nuclear weapons, certain flaws need to be addressed. Specifically, the potential risk of accidental nuclear war has not been considered.

While it is true that nuclear weapons have successfully deterred major wars between nuclear powers, the threat of non-state actors, such as terrorist groups obtaining and using nuclear weapons poses a significant danger to the stability of the nuclear deterrence system.

This issue was addressed in the Waltz-Sagan nuclear debate , a well-known exchange between Waltz and Scott Sagan. Waltz argued that nuclear weapons had a stabilizing effect on international relations. At the same time, Sagan challenged this assertion and argued that the risks associated with nuclear weapons, including accidental nuclear war, outweighed any stabilizing effect they might have.

Furthermore, using nuclear weapons in any capacity, even by state actors, would have severe and long-lasting consequences. The human, economic, and environmental toll of nuclear warfare would be devastating, and it is difficult to predict or control the escalation of conflict once nuclear weapons are used.

The book argues that states always act rationally to maximize their security within the international system. While this perspective may overlook the influence of emotions, biases, and human error in power politics, it is crucial to recognize that states comprise individuals liable to cognitive biases and can commit mistakes that result in irrational decision-making.

As such, it is essential to acknowledge the significance of these factors in shaping state behavior, and a failure to do so may limit our understanding of the complexities of international relations.

While Waltz’s neorealism theory contributes significantly to the study of international relations, it’s important to recognize that no single theory can fully explain all aspects of this complex field. Other theories, such as neo-classical realism, liberal institutionalism, and constructivism, offer valuable insights into factors that shape international relations.

For instance, neo-classical realism goes beyond neorealism by considering domestic factors like bureaucratic politics, public opinion, and political leadership in analyzing state behavior. Meanwhile, liberal institutionalism and constructivism emphasize international institutions, norms and values, and social constructions of identity as key factors in international relations.

Understanding the strengths and limitations of various theories can provide a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of international relations.

The Enduring Legacy of Man, the State, and War

‘Man, the State, and War’ has been a significant reference for international security scholars. The book argues that international conflict arises due to the anarchic international system and has influenced the study of international relations by providing a framework to understand conflicts like World War I, the Cold War, and the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Waltz’s argument about the “stability-instability paradox,” which suggests that the presence of nuclear weapons can prevent direct conflict between states while encouraging smaller, non-nuclear conflicts, has influenced the study of nuclear deterrence.

In conclusion, ‘Man, the State, and War’ is a seminal work of international relations theory that remains relevant today. Its emphasis on the rationality of states and the importance of the international system has left a lasting impact on foreign policy and global security debates.

The book’s arguments have been highly influential and continue to be debated. However, Waltz’s focus on the state and its neglect of other factors, such as the role of individuals and non-state actors, has been criticized by some scholars.

Despite these criticisms, the book is a valuable contribution to international relations. Its insights into the complex dynamics of war and peace make it a must-read for anyone interested in understanding international relations theory.

The book’s enduring relevance and continued influence demonstrate its significance as a classic work in the field.

*The opinions expressed are of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Diplomatic Insight or its editors. The reviewer has no personal or professional relationship with the author or publisher of the book, and no compensation was received for writing this review. 

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IvyPanda . 2019. "Man, the State and War by Kenneth Waltz." December 15, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/man-the-state-and-war-by-kenneth-waltz-book-review/.

1. IvyPanda . "Man, the State and War by Kenneth Waltz." December 15, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/man-the-state-and-war-by-kenneth-waltz-book-review/.

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IvyPanda . "Man, the State and War by Kenneth Waltz." December 15, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/man-the-state-and-war-by-kenneth-waltz-book-review/.

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book review man the state and war

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book: Man, the State, and War

Man, the State, and War

A Theoretical Analysis

Kenneth N. Waltz | 4.09 | 1,682 ratings and reviews

Ranked #9 in International Relations , Ranked #97 in Political Science

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A Criticism of Waltz's "Man the State and War"

Profile image of Darin Swan

A formatted critique of Kenneth N. Waltz's seminal work, "Man the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis"

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Hidemi Suganami

This article expounds and assesses the key contentions of Man, the State, and War. It notes that the book contains meta-theoretical and theoretical components. Through a close re-examination of the text, the article shows how Waltz arrives at his third-image conclusion, reveals a ...

book review man the state and war

Cyrus Great

www.e-ir.info

Paschalis Pechlivanis

War is one of the major themes in the study of international relations. Ever since war became part of man’s life, a big question has been raised: why do wars happen? Or more accurately, where do the causes of war lie? The need to find that particular answer is based on a basic assumption. Since war is associated with devastating results for the well-being of men, a solution for eradicating it should be found. The first and most decisive step towards finding such a solution is to identify the fundamental factors that lead to war. This effort was intensified especially in the twentieth century when two catastrophic World Wars and the shadow of a nuclear holocaust made it evident that future wars should be prevented. However, wars have never completely ceased to take place.

Kseniia Maiatskaia

Kenneth Walz's vision about the IR system world

Jodie Bradshaw

Kenneth Waltz’s Theory of International Politics (TIP) underlies his status as what Mearsheimer describes as ‘the most important international relations theorist of the past half century’ (Mearsheimer, 2009, p. 241). The impact of his novel ideas is the reason why it is requisite to properly comprehend them and their utility. It is for this reason that the first part of this essay will present some typical criticisms of Waltz’s (1) structure-centric approach and (2) his theoretical notion of anarchy, and then demonstrate some misconceptions that underlie these stances according to a Waeverian interpretation of Waltz’s intentions. In the second section, this essay will argue that the origin of these misunderstandings is the assumption that Waltz is an undivided positivist, and will highlight elements of TIP that reveal Waltz’s post-positivist tendencies. It is the disjointedness of Waltz’s positivism that will be propounded as the underlying deficiency of TIP, as opposed to the misgu...

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Herb Spencer

The sub-title of this 380-page book, by Bruce D. Porter, is The Military Foundations of Modern Politics. This review highlights the key points in this analysis of the mutual interaction between the phenomena of war and the rise of the modern state. The author illustrates that few states in the modern world (whose existence, boundaries and political structures) all emerged from past conflict, either international or domestic. He has synthesized a huge body of other studies of both war and politics that expands our deep understanding of the currents of history. The arena here is the last 500 years in Europe. A major focus is applied to Napoleon's civic impact on France (and Europe), presenting him as the pivotal modern personality. The analysis extends to the collapse of European and Soviet empires after the Second World War and the Cold War. This is NOT a military book - it is the impact of war on society. The author shows the vast range of warfare's modernizing effects on states. Warfare unifies, rallies and bureaucratizes both states and their peoples; warfare triggers nationalism, reform movements and revolutions. Through its mobilization of citizenry, war has been a contributing cause of virtually all major social movements, including democracy. This book studies major civil wars, as well as international conflicts, showing how they served as catalysts for new monarchies, absolutist states, nation-states, totalitarian states as well as contemporary industrial and post-industrial states. The impact on the American state is examined due to the Civil War, the two World Wars and the Cold War. The author discusses the political paradoxes of pro-military Conservatives denouncing big government, while anti-military Liberals embrace the power of the state to accomplish social ends while hesitating to acknowledge the military origins of that power.

Miguel GONZALEZ

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Book Review:Man, the State, and War. Kenneth N. Waltz; The Politics of Mass Society. William Kornhauser  [Book Review]

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Home » Man, the State and War Summary

Man, the State and War Summary

Emir Zecovic | Posted on January 25, 2018 |

4 min read ⌚ 

A Theoretical Analysis

Why do wars happen?

In the following text, we summarize Kenneth Waltz’s study on the causes of war, from an anthropological, psychological and political perspective.

Who Should Read “Man, the State, and War”? and, Why?

We have not seen a world war for a long time. However, all over the world, many countries are at war.

So, the questions on the nature of war and the search for prevention measures are still relevant.

In “Man, the State and War” the author tackles these questions by exploring different ideas and theories of prominent thinkers and philosophers throughout history.

We recommend this book to readers interested in politics and international relations.

About Kenneth N. Waltz

Kenneth N. Waltz

He taught at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia, as well as at Harvard and Peking University.

“Man the State and War Summary”

Everyone has their own opinion about anything and everything. The same stands true for the topic of war.

The reasons in people’s minds vary from economic crises to power-hungry leaders to authoritarian regimes.

In the following text, we will present to you the three main ideas regarding the causes of war that were present throughout history. These ideas are referred to as images.

The first-image thinkers link the reasons for war directly to human nature.

Although all of the representatives of this group agree that the reason for war is human nature, the disagreements happen when it comes to defining human nature, and hence the cure. According to their views on the cure, first-image thinkers can be optimists or pessimists.

The optimists argue that human nature is improbable, and so, according to them, education is the cure for war.

The pessimists, on the other hand, believe that human nature is not only unchangeable but also evil at its core. So, the only possible cure for war is external control.

You have to give it to them, at first glance it seems that first-image thinkers are right, since you could not find another explanation for starting conflict except the corrupted and egoistic human nature.

However, you have to bear in mind that on the opposite side of war , there is peace, in many countries in the world. So, there must be something good in human nature as well.

Second-image thinkers disagree with everything we just said. Instead, they believe that the cause of war lies in the internal structure of the country.

In other words, if only the right structure would be adopted globally, the world would be at peace.

Of course, not all of them agree on all points of the theory. So, they divide themselves into a liberal and socialist group of second-image thinkers.

Liberals believe that decentralization, free-trade and freedom from governmental regulation discourages war and prevents conflict.

Because according to them the interests of people become interconnected through trade agreements, and thus wars would benefit them less than peace.

Socialists do not agree . They believe that free trade is the actual reason that would lead to internal and external conflicts. According to them, the class struggle manifests in war.

The conclusion?

The abolishment of capitalism and the triumph of socialism will cure all reasons for war.

Lastly, the third-image thinkers see the international scene as lawless anarchy, which is the reason for conflict.

In other words, they argue that the only way to avoid violence and conflict is introducing a universal superior or higher institution of power.

Now that we looked at the three different understandings on what fuels war , we will continue to the key lessons, where we will present the main problems with each of these views.

Key Lessons from “Man, the State and War”

1.      Problems With The First-Image Thinkers’ Theory 2.       Problems With The Second-Image Thinkers’ Theory 3.       Problems With The Third-Image Thinkers’ Theory

Problems With The First-Image Thinkers’ Theory

There are several problems with the optimists’ understanding of human nature. First, even if it is possible to change many people, there would still exist many more people to change.

Second, all of the ways to create world order they propose state just one philosophy that can cure war. However, it is impossible to find a universal cure, since all people imagine the ideal world differently.

Finally, they only see the problem in human nature, which is a limitation.

Problems With The Second-Image Thinkers’ Theory

The problem with the liberal assumption that it is in every individual’s interest not to go to war is that not always are the individuals’ interests represented in the government.

The socialists’ theory has a similar shortcoming. Namely, they believe that each party’s rationality would help them overcome their conflicting viewpoints and find the best possible outcome.

Indeed, we could not rule against the notion that if international socialism existed, it could cure war since it was never established. However, if we look at past experiences, we can easily conclude that its success is quite unlikely.

Problems With The Third-Image Thinkers’ Theory

Third-image thinkers believe that a world government would prevent war.

However, even if such a government existed, there can be no guarantee that the leaders of it would act in the best interest of its member states, instead of in self-interest.

The chances of corruption in such a government cannot be ignored. So, it is highly unlikely that such a government would come into existence and be effective.

Like this summary? We’d Like to invite you to download our free 12 min app , for more amazing summaries and audiobooks.

“Man, the State and War” Quotes

book review man the state and war

Our Critical Review

“Man, the State and War” is a classic. The author backs his theory by referring to historical, political and social examples. The book is full of valuable insight and approaches the analysis of the reasons for war in a clear and concise manner.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing  at 12min . In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.

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Read an extract from Nuclear War: A scenario by Annie Jacobsen

In this terrifying extract from Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario, the author lays out what would happen in the first seconds after a nuclear missile hits the Pentagon

By Annie Jacobsen

12 April 2024

New Scientist Default Image

“A flash of light and heat so tremendous it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend…”

Shutterstock / mwreck

A 1-megaton thermonuclear weapon detonation begins with a flash of light and heat so tremendous it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend. One hundred and eighty million degrees Fahrenheit is four or five times hotter than the temperature that occurs at the center of the Earth’s sun.

In the first fraction of a millisecond after this thermonuclear bomb strikes the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., there is light. Soft X-ray light with a very short wavelength. The light superheats the surrounding air to millions of degrees, creating a massive fireball that expands at millions of miles per hour. Within a few seconds, this fireball increases to a diameter of a little more than a mile (5,700 feet across), its light and heat so intense that concrete surfaces explode, metal objects melt or evaporate, stone shatters, humans instantaneously convert into combusting carbon.

The five-story, five-sided structure of the Pentagon and everything inside its 6.5 million square feet of office space explodes into superheated dust from the initial flash of light and heat, all the walls shattering with the near-simultaneous arrival of the shock wave, all 27,000 employees perishing instantly.

Not a single thing in the fireball remains.

Ground zero is zeroed.

It has been three seconds since the initial blast. There is a baseball game going on two and a half miles due west at Nationals Park. The clothes on a majority of the 35,000 people watching the game catch on fire. Those who don’t quickly burn to death suffer intense third-degree burns. Their bodies get stripped of the outer layer of skin, exposing bloody dermis underneath.

Third-degree burns require immediate specialized care and often limb amputation to prevent death. Here inside Nationals Park there might be a few thousand people who somehow survive initially. They were inside buying food, or using the bathrooms indoors—people who now desperately need a bed at a burn treatment center. But there are only ten specialized burn beds in the entire Washington metropolitan area, at the MedStar Washington Hospital’s Burn Center in central D.C. And because this facility is about five miles northeast of the Pentagon, it no longer functions, if it even exists. At the Johns Hopkins Burn Center, forty-five miles northeast, in Baltimore, there are less than twenty specialized burn beds, but they all are about to become filled. In total there are only around 2,000 specialized burn unit beds in all fifty states at any given time.

Within seconds, thermal radiation from this 1-megaton nuclear bomb attack on the Pentagon has deeply burned the skin on roughly 1 million more people, 90 percent of whom will die. Defense scientists and academics alike have spent decades doing this math. Most won’t make it more than a few steps from where they happen to be standing when the bomb detonates. They become what civil defense experts referred to in the 1950s, when these gruesome calculations first came to be, as “Dead When Found.”

Humans created the nuclear weapon in the twentieth century to save the world from evil, and now, in the twenty-first century, the nuclear weapon is about to destroy the world. To burn it all down.

Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen, published by Torva (£20.00), is available now. It is the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club: sign up here to read along with our members

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The Rebel’s Clinic: A Book Review

A biography of frantz fanon examines the psychiatric clinic he ran in algeria..

Updated April 10, 2024 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

  • What Is Psychiatry?
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  • How could the psychiatrist treat his patients’ psychic wounds while fighting against their dehumanization?
  • Support for social psychiatry led to critiques of ethno-psychiatry and its ties to colonialism.
  • Renowned for rejecting racism, Fanon made the struggle for justice and for mental health inseparable.

Source: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024

“In front of the sick, we are filled with humility.” With these quiet, reflective words, murmured to trainees during hospital rounds, the Martinican psychiatrist Frantz Fanon conveyed a profound sensitivity to his patients during Algeria’s harrowing eight-year battle for independence.

“We were enormously impressed,” the Tunisian sociologist Frej Stambouli recalls, “by his ability to listen to his patients and his art of making them talk without fear .”

The fifth of eight siblings—likely named “Frantz” after his mother’s Alsatian roots—a now-28-year-old Fanon had been appointed director of Algeria’s Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in 1953, a year after the publication of his watershed psychological treatise against racism , Black Skin, White Masks. The country would soon be embroiled in violent conflict, and his staff and patients would be forced to live in “an atmosphere of permanent insecurity.”

As Adam Shatz explains in his deft and engrossing biography, The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), many of Fanon’s patients “lived through brutal roundups in villages, escaped from mass executions, withered away in refugee camps, or survived ruthless interrogation.” Many told him of family members who had been “killed, tortured, or raped by French soldiers” and of their own guilt and shame if they responded with comparable violence.

“A Laboratory of Revolutionary Ferment and Innovation”

Fanon had been entrusted with running a clinic inside the psychiatric hospital that would be “open at all hours to fighters in need of both physical and psychological care.” Since at other national hospitals, “wounded Algerians faced the risk of being turned over to the police,” the clinic quickly became indispensable.

While the physical symptoms Fanon and his colleagues treated were mostly mild—stomach ulcers, impotence, muscular stiffness, and difficulty sleeping —the worst effects of the conflict were intractably mental: “nightmares, feelings of murderousness or despair, a paralyzing sense of depersonalization.”

As a doctor, Fanon “did not discriminate between Algerians and Europeans: all, in his view, deserved compassion and care.” The fact that at Blida-Joinville soldiers, even torturers, were entitled to counseling nonetheless led to tense dilemmas. One resulted in a ghastly encounter between an Algerian patient traumatized by torture and the French officer responsible for it, who was seeking reprieve from associated guilt and shame. Fanon describes finding the officer “leaning against a tree, covered in sweat,” in the full throes of a panic attack.

[Fanon] drove the man home; on the sofa, the man explained that he had stumbled upon an Algerian who had been tortured at police headquarters. Fanon learned afterward that the officer had himself tortured the patient in question and that, after the encounter, the patient had gone missing. “We eventually discovered him hiding in a bathroom where he was trying to commit suicide ,” Fanon wrote in his case notes. “The Algerian victim was convinced that his torturer had come to the hospital to arrest him.”

Other reforms at the clinic were endearing and meant to be pragmatic but failed to win over skeptics. “Since many of his Muslim patients had been farmers,” Shatz writes, Fanon “encouraged them to grow vegetables and gave them spades and picks to plant a garden in a soccer field.” But a cry went out about the patients’ reduced space for exercise. A senior administrator who “considered [the Martinican] ‘madder than the madmen’ called the gendarmerie, and a barbed wire fence was erected around the field until Fanon forced them to take it down.”

Frantz Fanon / Handout

Rejecting the Culture of Psychiatric Confinement

Black Skin, White Masks, first published in Paris, worked to expose racist and colonial assumptions and projections—the structural-political consequences, Fanon explained to Richard Wright, of “systematic misconceptions that exist between Whites and Blacks.”

But in Algeria, during the brutal colonial war that put cities under siege and made civilians frequent targets and hostages, Fanon’s focus shifted increasingly to the disalienation of the racially oppressed and dispossessed. In doing so, his clinic faced difficult questions: How could it best treat their psychic wounds while fighting against their dehumanization, not least if treatment meant a return to violent conflict?

Many Famous and Not Famous Suffer Co-Occurring Disorders

In “Social Therapy in a Ward of Muslim Men,” one of several papers from the clinic co-written with Jacques Azoulay, Fanon’s intern and close friend, social psychiatry was embraced—as it had been by Wright in the United States a few years earlier—as a tool for liberating the poor and oppressed. Yet, in this case, the emphasis on “social therapy” had additional effects, including to “demolish” (in Shatz’s words) “the mythologies of a racist psychiatry by revealing what lay beneath the ostensible pathologies of Algerians: a stubborn psychological resistance to colonial domination, rooted in an attachment to national identity and tradition.”

The clinic at Blida-Joinville gave Fanon a chance to apply some of his most progressive policies, to help restore soldiers to health while serving the independence struggle. It built on close precedents such as the Lafargue Clinic—founded in Harlem, New York, in 1946—which for 12 years served residents and sought “not only to heal the wounds of racism but also to challenge the racist biases of American psychiatry.”

Strongly opposed to “shielding” patients from the world, a process Fanon believed would lead to ‘thingification’ of their condition, he advocated a “more dynamic, confrontational approach to care,” in which patients were encouraged “to faire face au monde (confront the world),” even if it challenged their understanding of a still-colonial reality.

As Shatz observes, Fanon nonetheless “came to see that reform was not just inadequate but also a lie—that, short of a revolutionary transformation, he would be complicit as a practicing psychiatrist in the culture of confinement that sequestered Algerian bodies and souls.”

There were practical considerations, too, tied to language and translation. Since, at the time, Fanon spoke neither Arabic nor Berber (he began Arabic lessons in 1956), “he often depended on interpreters—Algerian nurses, for the most part—to communicate with his patients.” His work with Algerians was thus “a work of constant translation” risking its own, milder forms of misrecognition and misunderstanding.

Throughout, Fanon is described as exacting, involved, and demanding of himself and his staff. As Shatz puts it, “He always arrived at work before his interns, dressed in fastidious shirts with cuff links, and sometimes changed his tie twice a day. After dinner, he would often meet with staff to discuss Freud ’s clinical studies or the latest developments in psychiatric research.”

The False Universal in a Colonial War

Part of the lesson from Fanon’s clinical focus, Shatz writes, was that “psychiatry in a colonial society had to draw on the lived experience and the values of the colonized: it could not impose a foreign culture as a universal one.”

It could not do so successfully, that is, but many of its adherents still tried. Since the “universalist method” was in fact based on French norms and culture, as Fanon soon grasped, it could neither “reach” his traumatized patients nor mask that such ethno-psychiatry had its own roots in colonialism.

The Rebel’s Clinic is adept at examining what Fanon proposed in its place and, thus, an invaluable record of how his thinking and practice evolved. One such example is the regressive stance on homosexuality that he had adopted in Black Skin, White Masks— a stance that was widespread at the time. According to Shatz, Fanon’s perspective later shifted “in a markedly less normative direction in Tunis, thanks in part to his work with a mentally disturbed gay man, one of the only patients with whom he attempted a traditional psychoanalytic treatment.”

“Refusal of the Mask”

A psychiatrist trained in Lyon and a careful reader of Lacan on fantasy, projection , and symbolization, Fanon helped to “map the psychic landscape produced by racism” with a focus on what we now call “implicit bias.” As Shatz concludes, “His psychological insights into the humiliations of colonial rule, the violent (and erotic) fantasies of the colonized, and the arrogance of the national bourgeoisie were not only piercing but also rich in dramatic potential.”

The Rebel’s Clinic asks excellent questions of its subject, from practical and conceptual tensions in his writing (especially notable in the shift from Black Skin, White Masks to The Wretched of the Earth ). One such tension emerged “between his work as a doctor and his obligations as a militant, between his commitment to healing and his belief in violence.” Why, too, was Fanon “so averse to Paris, with its vibrant Black community”? Why did he choose Lyon for his training, “a city notorious for its suspicion of outsiders”? Above all, given the ferocious counterinsurgency the French army unleashed in Algeria and Fanon’s affirmation of violence in response, “Had rhetoric like Fanon’s helped to reinforce the resort to violence to settle political problems?”

Shatz is certainly correct in noting that “patience with the Gandhian model of resistance was running out.” Over the course of the bloody eight-year war, the same model was indeed revealed as vastly inadequate. But was a third way still possible that Fanon, with well-noted truculence and a now-vast audience, too quickly dismissed as unworkable or undesirable?

The counterfactuals persist: What if The Wretched of the Earth had opened not with its incendiary chapter “On Violence” (which Sartre’s preface mistakenly glorified, derailing the book’s larger argument and reception) but with its harrowing final chapter, “Colonial War and Mental Disorders,” among Fanon’s most trenchant criticisms of colonialism as the source of violence?

Fanon himself would later acknowledge that some of his incendiary rhetoric was meant to rouse and shame what he called the “beautiful souls” of the French left, whose purism could lead to apathy. He was also, Shatz notes, “explicit in his criticisms of a politics based on revenge : the revolutionary movement’s obligation was to direct the violent impulses of the colonized toward pragmatic objectives, not to foment bloodletting.”

Instead of trying to resolve these tensions—in either case impossible or revisionist— The Rebel’s Clinic lays out the contraries that pulled its brilliant protagonist in competing directions: “The partygoer and the ascetic, the rebel and the dutiful psychiatrist, the ambitious striver and the selfless militant, the urbane intellectual who romanticized the peasantry, the opponent of France who believed fervently in its revolutionary Jacobin traditions, the nomad who never stopped looking for a home.”

Fanon Today

While assessing Fanon’s legacy and continued relevance, including for countries and regions still enduring colonial war, Shatz concludes: “The era of alternative facts and hypernationalism has been a breeding ground for the racialized fears that Fanon diagnosed so brilliantly… The racial divisions and economic inequalities that he protested were not so much liquidated as reconfigured.”

In Italy, for example, where his work has “enjoyed unusual prestige,” Fanon has inspired a clinic named in his honor, the Centro Frantz Fanon in Turin, whose “patients are mostly migrants and refugees, often victims of trafficking or torture.”

In the States, where Fanon’s work was widely adopted by the civil rights movement and for years has been integral to postcolonial and diaspora studies, his writings more recently helped to inspire the Black Lives Matter movement and redirect attention to police violence and disproportionate incarceration, following the deaths by the police of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.

Shatz, A (2024). The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Christopher Lane Ph.D.

Christopher Lane, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Medical Humanities at Northwestern University.

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Star Henry Lloyd-Hughes reflects on profoundly moving WWII drama 'We Were the Lucky Ones'

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NEW YORK -- A new episode of "We Were the Lucky Ones" hits Hulu Thursday.

If you haven't been watching, the book-to-screen miniseries tells the true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II and their determination to survive and reunite.

It's been getting rave reviews and is being described as devastating and profoundly moving.

In addition to Joey King, it stars Henry Lloyd-Hughes as the oldest sibling in the family.

He said it has been rewarding to be a part of the series.

"What I will say for me as an actor, this is before the reviews came out. It was the first time in my career, pretty much where I'd watch something and thought, that is exactly what I imagined it would be like, when I read the script," Lloyd-Hughes said.

Viewers experience a range of emotions while watching. One minute there is joy, and then moments later, thing turn gut-wrenching.

"Honestly, that is also the experience of watching the show, that I think is the authentic experience," he said.

Lloyd-Hughes said the cast spent time together before any cameras started rolling and had dinners together.

"What we were able to do was build, hopefully, what you feel is this, a group of people who feel like they do live together, feel like they do finish each other's sentences, feel like they are a completely organic unit. And if you don't invest in those relationships, you don't invest in those people, you can't go on that journey," Lloyd-Hughes said. "You build this thing, and you go, man, these people love each other man, they understand each other man, they laugh at each other's jokes, and, you know, make fun of each other. And then, and also, because they are come from this very comfortable, middle class, professional background, they don't think this war is going to affect them, you know, they feel completely insulated from that. And yet, everything that happens to the show happens."

When describing the series, he points to two iconic films.

"I would say it's like 'Saving Private Ryan' meets 'Schindler's List.' And that sounds like a very compacted version. but if you had to get me to do it in a line, yeah. Because, of course we have the the backdrop of the war and everything that's happening in the the horrors that are going on a kind of geopolitical level," Lloyd-Hughes said. "But it's also about a family. It's about mom, dad, the children being spread out not only across Europe, but across four continents and trying to find each other."

Overall, he hopes it leaves viewers with a feeling of hope.

"It's a story about hope, against impossible odds. And I think we all need a bit of that," Lloyd-Hughes said.

New episodes of "We Were the Lucky Ones" stream Thursdays on Hulu, which is owned by the same parent company as ABC.

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Man, the state, and war.

A Theoretical Analysis, revised edition

Kenneth N. Waltz

Columbia University Press

Man, the State, and War

Pub Date: September 2001

ISBN: 9780231125376

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In this thoughtful inquiry into the views of classical political theory on the nature and causes of war, Professor Waltz follows three principal themes or images: war as a consequence of the nature and behavior of man, as an outcome of their internal organization of states, and as a product of international anarchy. Foreign Affairs
Despite the changes in the world, the text stands as a classic effort to explain why men and nations fight. Military Review

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‘Civil War’ Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again.

In Alex Garland’s tough new movie, a group of journalists led by Kirsten Dunst, as a photographer, travels a United States at war with itself.

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A woman with a bulletproof vest that says “Press” stands in a smoky city street.

By Manohla Dargis

A blunt, gut-twisting work of speculative fiction, “Civil War” opens with the United States at war with itself — literally, not just rhetorically. In Washington, D.C., the president is holed up in the White House; in a spookily depopulated New York, desperate people wait for water rations. It’s the near-future, and rooftop snipers, suicide bombers and wild-eyed randos are in the fight while an opposition faction with a two-star flag called the Western Forces, comprising Texas and California — as I said, this is speculative fiction — is leading the charge against what remains of the federal government. If you’re feeling triggered, you aren’t alone.

It’s mourning again in America, and it’s mesmerizingly, horribly gripping. Filled with bullets, consuming fires and terrific actors like Kirsten Dunst running for cover, the movie is a what-if nightmare stoked by memories of Jan. 6. As in what if the visions of some rioters had been realized, what if the nation was again broken by Civil War, what if the democratic experiment called America had come undone? If that sounds harrowing, you’re right. It’s one thing when a movie taps into childish fears with monsters under the bed; you’re eager to see what happens because you know how it will end (until the sequel). Adult fears are another matter.

In “Civil War,” the British filmmaker Alex Garland explores the unbearable if not the unthinkable, something he likes to do. A pop cultural savant, he made a splashy zeitgeist-ready debut with his 1996 best seller “The Beach,” a novel about a paradise that proves deadly, an evergreen metaphor for life and the basis for a silly film . That things in the world are not what they seem, and are often far worse, is a theme that Garland has continued pursuing in other dark fantasies, first as a screenwriter (“ 28 Days Later ”), and then as a writer-director (“ Ex Machina ”). His résumé is populated with zombies, clones and aliens, though reliably it is his outwardly ordinary characters you need to keep a closer watch on.

By the time “Civil War” opens, the fight has been raging for an undisclosed period yet long enough to have hollowed out cities and people’s faces alike. It’s unclear as to why the war started or who fired the first shot. Garland does scatter some hints; in one ugly scene, a militia type played by a jolting, scarily effective Jesse Plemons asks captives “what kind of American” they are. Yet whatever divisions preceded the conflict are left to your imagination, at least partly because Garland assumes you’ve been paying attention to recent events. Instead, he presents an outwardly and largely post-ideological landscape in which debates over policies, politics and American exceptionalism have been rendered moot by war.

One thing that remains familiar amid these ruins is the movie’s old-fashioned faith in journalism. Dunst, who’s sensational, plays Lee, a war photographer who works for Reuters alongside her friend, a reporter, Joel (the charismatic Wagner Moura). They’re in New York when you meet them, milling through a crowd anxiously waiting for water rations next to a protected tanker. It’s a fraught scene; the restless crowd is edging into mob panic, and Lee, camera in hand, is on high alert. As Garland’s own camera and Joel skitter about, Lee carves a path through the chaos, as if she knows exactly where she needs to be — and then a bomb goes off. By the time it does, an aspiring photojournalist, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), is also in the mix.

The streamlined, insistently intimate story takes shape once Lee, Joel, Jessie and a veteran reporter, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), pile into a van and head to Washington. Joel and Lee are hoping to interview the president (Nick Offerman), and Sammy and Jessie are riding along largely so that Garland can make the trip more interesting. Sammy serves as a stabilizing force (Henderson fills the van with humanizing warmth), while Jessie plays the eager upstart Lee takes under her resentful wing. It’s a tidily balanced sampling that the actors, with Garland’s banter and via some cozy downtime, turn into flesh-and-blood personalities, people whose vulnerability feeds the escalating tension with each mile.

As the miles and hours pass, Garland adds diversions and hurdles, including a pair of playful colleagues, Tony and Bohai (Nelson Lee and Evan Lai), and some spooky dudes guarding a gas station. Garland shrewdly exploits the tense emptiness of the land, turning strangers into potential threats and pretty country roads into ominously ambiguous byways. Smartly, he also recurrently focuses on Lee’s face, a heartbreakingly hard mask that Dunst lets slip brilliantly. As the journey continues, Garland further sketches in the bigger picture — the dollar is near-worthless, the F.B.I. is gone — but for the most part, he focuses on his travelers and the engulfing violence, the smoke and the tracer fire that they often don’t notice until they do.

Despite some much-needed lulls (for you, for the narrative rhythm), “Civil War” is unremittingly brutal or at least it feels that way. Many contemporary thrillers are far more overtly gruesome than this one, partly because violence is one way unimaginative directors can put a distinctive spin on otherwise interchangeable material: Cue the artful fountains of arterial spray. Part of what makes the carnage here feel incessant and palpably realistic is that Garland, whose visual approach is generally unfussy, doesn’t embellish the violence, turning it into an ornament of his virtuosity. Instead, the violence is direct, at times shockingly casual and unsettling, so much so that its unpleasantness almost comes as a surprise.

If the violence feels more intense than in a typical genre shoot ’em up, it’s also because, I think, with “Civil War,” Garland has made the movie that’s long been workshopped in American political discourse and in mass culture, and which entered wider circulation on Jan. 6. The raw power of Garland’s vision unquestionably owes much to the vivid scenes that beamed across the world that day when rioters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “ MAGA civil war ,” swarmed the Capitol. Even so, watching this movie, I also flashed on other times in which Americans have relitigated the Civil War directly and not, on the screen and in the streets.

Movies have played a role in that relitigation for more than a century, at times grotesquely. Two of the most famous films in history — D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist epic “The Birth of a Nation” (which became a Ku Klux Klan recruitment tool) and the romantic 1939 melodrama “Gone With the Wind” — are monuments to white supremacy and the myth of the Southern Lost Cause. Both were critical and popular hits. In the decades since, filmmakers have returned to the Civil War era to tell other stories in films like “Glory,” “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained” that in addressing the American past inevitably engage with its present.

There are no lofty or reassuring speeches in “Civil War,” and the movie doesn’t speak to the better angels of our nature the way so many films try to. Hollywood’s longstanding, deeply American imperative for happy endings maintains an iron grip on movies, even in ostensibly independent productions. There’s no such possibility for that in “Civil War.” The very premise of Garland’s movie means that — no matter what happens when or if Lee and the rest reach Washington — a happy ending is impossible, which makes this very tough going. Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor’s face that, like Dunst’s, expressed a nation’s soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray.

Civil War Rated R for war violence and mass death. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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People are 47 before they reach peak earnings, data for 2023 shows - a huge increase from five years ago. Read about this and the rest of today's consumer and personal finance news in the Money blog, and leave a comment in the form below.

Friday 12 April 2024 10:07, UK

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Messy neighbours can slash tens of thousands of pounds off the value of your home, according to new research.

A survey of estate agents by Churchill Home Insurance found that more than four in five (82%) believe it's important for homeowners to chat to their neighbours about their poorly maintained property before putting the house on the market.

Some 22% said an overgrown garden is likely to have the biggest impact, while 20% said rubbish or junk in the driveway or front garden could affect the cost.

Overflowing gutters (20%), several cars parked on or around the property (19%) and garden ornaments and statues (18%) also cut the value of neighbouring homes, estate agents said.

The research also revealed that some sellers deliberately time viewings to make their houses seem more attractive, avoiding issues next door such as loud music or pets - or even avoiding the neighbours altogether.

Sarah Khan, head of Churchill home insurance, said: "First impressions count when it comes to selling homes, with the sale price often negatively impacted when the neighbouring property looks scruffy.

"Investing a few hundred pounds in a gardener to tidy up next door's front garden could pay huge dividends when it comes to selling your home, a win-win for both you and your neighbour." 

What do estate agents say? 

We spoke to people in the industry about the risk of having messy neighbours when it comes to moving - and what their advice is for those seeking to avoid any effect on their sale.

James Stevenson, south and south west area director at Foxtons,  agrees it can make the process more difficult.

"Gardens that are unkept or full of clutter, pavements and frontages that have fallen into disrepair or where your neighbours are showing little care for their property are all a negative flag for buyers," he said.

"Additionally, any disruption that has become a neighbourly dispute must be declared to prospective buyers, so it's always better to have a great relationship with your neighbours and try to resolve any existing issues amicably."

Messy neighbours are "frustrating" at any time, but become a "more pressing issue" when it comes to putting a home up for sale, says  Sarah Cull, senior associate director Strutt & Parker Salisbury.

"Before you get your own gardening shears out, the first step should always be to try to have a frank conversation with your neighbour – you can even explain that you’re looking to sell and you want to give prospective buyers the best first impression possible."

If a friendly chat doesn't do the job, Sarah suggests heading to a local garden centre to pick up some screening.

"Where the neighbour's garden is considered a nuisance – for example there's lots of rubbish which could attract pests, or weeds are damaging groundwork – then you can report it to your local council," she added.

By  Sarah Taaffe-Maguire , business reporter

The continued return to growth with GDP - a measure of everything produced in the economy - up 0.1% has been welcomed by markets.

The FTSE 100 - the index of most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange - is up 0.86% and near its all-time high.

Pushing up the index is Fresnillo, the precious metals mining company with its share price up 6.91%.

Potentially putting a dampener on the global economy is the fact oil prices have remained elevated, with a barrel of the benchmark Brent crude oil costing $90.57.

Currency wise, one pound buys $1.256 and €1.17.

Jeremy Hunt says the latest economy figures are a "welcome sign".

The chancellor said GDP growth of 0.1% shows "that the economy is turning a corner, and we can build on this progress if we stick to our plan".

"Last week our cuts to national insurance for 29 million working people came into effect across Britain, as part of our plan to reward work and grow the economy," he said in a statement.

  The UK economy has grown slightly for the second month in a row, official figures show.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew just 0.1% in February, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

It's another signal that the UK economy is working its way out of recession.

Growth of 0.3% was recorded last month - and that figure has been revised upwards from a previous estimate of 0.2%.

A recession was declared in February after data showed two quarters of economic contraction.

If the economy expands for three months, the UK will be officially out of recession.

It can be hard to balance getting nutritious foods that make you feel good without emptying your wallet.

In this series every Friday, we're trying to find the cheapest ways to identify the healthiest options in the supermarket.

We've asked  Sunna Van Kampen,  founder of  Tonic Health ,  who went viral on social media for reviewing supermarket products in the search of healthier choices, for his input. 

The series does not aim to identify the outright healthiest option, rather how to get better nutritional value for as little money as possible.

This time we're looking at yogurt - specifically the differences between some of the most popular: authentic Greek and Greek-style. 

"You have to watch out for Greek-style yoghurt masquerading as the authentic variety," Sunna says. 

Typical Greek-style yoghurt has around 4.6g of sugar per 100g, he says.

But swivel your cart towards the authentic Greek yoghurt, and you'll find only 3.3g per 100g.

"That's an impressive 28% reduction in sugar content, or a teaspoon of sugar a day if you have a 300g portion." 

To be clear - this isn't added sugar, this is the naturally-occurring kind from lactose in the milk.

Protein is the building block of our bodies, and something around 66% of Brits don't get enough of.

"Authentic Greek yoghurt boasts around double the protein content of its Greek-style cousins - with branded versions having 9g per 100g compared to just 3.7g per 100g," Sunna says. 

This means in a typical 300g bowl, you are getting 27g of protein versus only 11.1g in Greek-style. 

Here's the bottom line - it is more expensive, but the investment is worth it, Sunna says. 

  • Greek-style yoghurt – supermarket own label – 22p per 100g
  • Authentic Greek yoghurt - supermarket own label – 46p per 100g
  • Authentic Greek yoghurt – branded versions – 50-58p per 100g

"Okay, so we are talking double the price, but you get what you pay for with double the protein," Sunna says.

Think of it this way - every 300g bowl is an extra 72p per day for nearly 16g of extra protein and nearly 30% less sugar. 

"Far cheaper than what you'd pay for a protein bar with the same amount of protein," Sunna notes. 

The key here: value isn't exclusive to the price tag - and investing in your health is more important than ever. 

So, next time you're navigating the dairy aisle, remember that not all yoghurts are created equal - opting for authentic Greek yoghurt can be a small but effective step towards a healthier diet without breaking the bank.

The nutritionist's view - from  Dr Laura Brown , senior lecturer in nutrition, food, and health sciences at Teesside University...

Yes, absolutely for a source of protein. 

Yogurt is better than protein bars and powders that are full of protein, as they come along with a long list of other potentially artificial ingredients that are not necessary. 

If we are looking at yoghurts from a health perspective, then you're definitely wanting to look for this style - natural, Greek, low sugar or sugar free but not fat-free! 

Families should avoid investing in sugar-laden yoghurts that do not serve any nutritional purposes. 

If someone is eating yoghurt specifically as a source of protein, then there are much better sources like beans and lentils which are affordable and will provide other additional benefits including fibre. 

The price of a prescription is set to to rise from £9.65 to £9.90 in England in May - but there are ways you can save money on your medicines.

Fee-free options remain in place for some, such as those who are pregnant, have certain disabilities, students or the elderly.

But if you're not exempt, there are still some means of cutting the costs of treatments.

Prepayment certificates

Prescription prepayment certificates (PPC) cover NHS prescriptions over a given time period, no matter how many medicines you need.

There are two options: A three-month PPC (£32.05 from May), which will start to save you money if you buy four or more prescriptions in that period, or a 12-month PPC (£114.50), which pays off if you buy 12 or more in a year.

Ask for a larger prescription

Doctors may agree to prescribe a longer course of medicine - such as two months' worth instead of one, halving the cost.

Just ask the question - they might say yes, especially if there's no danger of overuse.

Menopause medication

The NHS offers a particular PPC for hormone replacement therapy.

It lasts for 12 months and costs £19.30, rising to £19.80 from 1 May.

Women can use the PCC as many times as they need within the year.

You might not need a prescription

For some ailments, there are over-the-counter options sold cheaper than their prescribed alternative. You can ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice.

People are 47 before they reach peak earnings, data for 2023 shows - a huge increase from five years ago.

Office for National Statistics figures show the age for the highest average wage had risen from 38 in 2013 and 40 in 2018.

It comes as Britons retire later and younger people struggle on the lowest wages.

In 2023, this highest average wage (gross median hourly earnings, including overtime) was £18.78 per hour.

The ONS said: "While the age at which earnings peak has changed, the overall trends in earnings throughout a person’s working career have remained very similar. 

"Young people earn the lowest hourly wage, people aged between 30 and 50 earn the most and median hourly earnings fall from around age 50 until retirement.

"Whilst median earnings fall between age 50 and retirement, this does not mean that individuals' pay will decrease. 

"Higher earners may retire early, reducing the median wage of those remaining in employment, and people may change roles and hours worked."

Yesterday we reported on ONS data showing the age at which people reach life milestones - with all of them being pushed later in life except one...

Fake flights and caravans are the two most common items being sold by fraudsters in relation to travel, Lloyds Bank's research has found.

As Britons head online to book deals for the upcoming bank holidays and summer, they have been urged to "remain vigilant", with the average holiday scam victim being conned out of £765.

Amid rising flight costs post-COVID, people have been flocking to social media and other lesser-known websites to secure cheaper deals.

A food delivery company claims to have created an  "unshakeable bag" to avoid spillage in transit.

Bolt, which owns the Bolt Food delivery platform, said its design is based on gyroscope technology and will keep food stable "during the most abrupt movements".

In a post to its website, the firm said it would make the design available to its competitors as it is "too powerful to be owned by any one company".

"We believe everyone should enjoy a perfect meal, regardless of which app they order it from," it said.

Assaulting a shopworker is to be made a separate criminal offence after a government U-turn following pressure from campaigners.

The government previously said "more legislative change" was not needed to tackle the "intolerable violence and abuse" faced by shopworkers, arguing it did not think it was "required or will be most effective".

But Rishi Sunak is now set to announce his government will be amending the Criminal Justice Bill to bring in the new offence.

The drugmaker was on its knees when Sir Pascal Soriot took over in 2012. 

But under his leadership it now does just about everything the UK wants from a business - creating high value-added jobs and developing products that improve people's lives.

The FTSE 100's performance has lagged that of many of its peers, both in the United States and Europe, more or less since the Brexit vote in 2016.

That poor performance has reflected the poor valuation of many UK-listed companies - resulting in numerous foreign takeovers of UK businesses in recent months and years.

It has also led to a scarcity in the number of companies floating on the London Stock Exchange, most notably the  Cambridge-based chip designer ARM Holdings , which last year opted to list in the US instead.

The situation has alarmed the government, which has announced a number of reforms  aimed at raising the UK's attractiveness .

An imminent shareholder vote on Sir Pascal's pay makes a particularly interesting test case because few would dispute that he has been the most outstanding FTSE 100 chief executive of his generation.

This rise could take his potential earnings to £18.5m this year - which critics say is excessive.

Read my full piece here ...

England's average house price has risen by £103,000 over the last decade, while the average annual wage has risen by £7,734.

But some areas have seen homeownership affordability decline more than others... 

The London borough of Barking and Dagenham has seen the most significant fall, according to moving platform Getamover. 

The platform found the area has seen house prices more than double to £380,000 in the last 10 years - but wages have only risen by £2,182. 

Hillingdon in West London took the second spot, with the average property shooting up by £230,000 to £495,000, while the average income increased by just £143. 

While London remains the most unaffordable region, the East Midlands has also seen a notable fall. 

Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire ranked fifth in the table, with the average house price increasing by £129,000 and the median annual income growing by £2,644.   

Gedling ranks sixth among the areas of England where the affordability of buying a home has declined most. 

The Nottinghamshire region has seen house prices soar by 84.8% to £231,000, while the average income has risen by just 13.11% to £33,454. 

You can see how other areas fared in the table below...

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book review man the state and war

Guinness World Records

"It's pure luck": Inside the life of world's oldest man as he takes title aged 111

split image of John Tinniswood

111-year-old John Alfred Tinniswood from England is now the world’s oldest living man , following the death of 114-year-old Juan Vicente Pérez (Venezuela) .

112-year-old Gisaburo Sonobe from Japan was initially expected to be the new record holder, but he was recently confirmed to have passed away on 31 March.

Born in Liverpool on 26 August 1912 – the same year the Titanic sank – John’s exact age is 111 years 223 days as of 5 April 2024.

John is a great-grandfather and currently resides at a care home in Southport, where staff describe him as “a big chatterbox”.

After confirming him to be the oldest man alive, Guinness World Records Official Adjudicator Megan Bruce travelled to Southport to present John with his certificate and learn more about his long life.

Despite his advanced age, John can still perform most daily tasks independently: he gets out of bed unassisted, listens to the radio to keep up with the news, and still manages his own finances.

According to John, the secret to his longevity is “pure luck”. 

He said: “You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it.”

Beyond eating a portion of battered fish and chips every Friday, John says he doesn’t follow any particular diet: “I eat what they give me and so does everybody else. I don’t have a special diet.”

John Tinniswood with his GWR certificate

John doesn’t smoke and rarely drinks alcohol. His main advice for staying healthy is to practice moderation: “If you drink too much or you eat too much or you walk too much; if you do too much of anything, you’re going to suffer eventually,” he said.

A lifelong Liverpool FC fan, John was born just 20 years after the club was founded in 1892. He has lived through all eight of his club’s FA Cup wins and 17 of their 19 league title wins.

John has also lived through both World Wars; he was 27 when the second one broke out, and despite having eyesight issues, he found purpose by working in an administrative role for the Army Pay Corps. In addition to accounts and auditing, his work involved logistical tasks such as locating stranded soldiers and organizing food supplies. As such, John is the world's oldest surviving male World War II veteran.

After the war, John worked in accounts for Shell and BP up until his retirement in 1972.

old photo of John Tinniswood

When asked how the world around him has changed throughout his life, John replied: “The world, in its way, is always changing. It’s a sort of ongoing experience. […] It’s getting a little better but not all that much yet. It’s going the right way.”

John met his wife, Blodwen, at a dance in Liverpool. One of his fondest memories is of their wedding in 1942, a year before having their daughter, Susan. The couple enjoyed 44 years together before Blodwen passed away in 1986.

John now has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

John Tinniswood and Megan Bruce

Since turning 100 in 2012, John received a birthday card each year from the late Queen Elizabeth , who was John’s junior by almost 14 years.

Having become the UK’s oldest man in 2020, John is unfazed by his new-found status as the oldest in the entire world. “Doesn’t make any difference to me,” he said. “Not at all. I accept it for what it is.”

His advice for younger generations is: “Always do the best you can, whether you’re learning something or whether you’re teaching someone.

“Give it all you’ve got. Otherwise it’s not worth bothering with.”

The oldest man ever  was Jiroemon Kimura (1897–2013)  from Japan, who lived to the age of 116 years 54 days.

The world’s oldest living woman and oldest living person overall is Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera , who recently celebrated her 117th birthday .

Want more? Follow us on Google News  and across our social media channels to stay up-to-date with all things Guinness World Records! You can find us on Facebook , Twitter/X , Instagram , Threads ,  TikTok , LinkedIn , and Snapchat Discover . Don't forget to check out our videos on YouTube  and become part of our group chat by following the Guinness World Records  WhatsApp channel . Still not had enough? Click here  to buy our latest book, filled to the brim with stories about our amazing record breakers.

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book review man the state and war

book review man the state and war

Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis › Customer reviews

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HBO's Stylish Adaptation Of 'The Sympathizer' Is A Watered-Down Version Of The Book

Marina Fang

Senior Culture Reporter, HuffPost

Robert Downey Jr., left, and Hoa Xuande appear in HBO's "The Sympathizer."

There’s a brief moment at just about the midpoint of HBO’s adaptation of “The Sympathizer” when the show’s recurring flaw really settles in. Its fourth episode chronicles the filming of a movie within the story. Like in the miniseries’ source material — Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name — this fictional Hollywood production bears a strong resemblance to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic, “Apocalypse Now.” The novel and series’ unnamed protagonist is an adviser on the movie, directed by a volatile white male filmmaker simply called the Auteur.

Ostensibly, our protagonist — known to most people around him as an ex-captain in the South Vietnamese army, now living in the U.S. as a refugee — is there to make sure that the film and its portrayals of Vietnamese characters are culturally sensitive. But at best, he’s really there to try to temper anything super racist. (And for the most part, his attempts at course correction are utterly futile.)

The episode departs from the book in several ways, including when someone places a deer’s bloody head in another person’s bed. It’s a clear nod to “The Godfather” — and a bit too on the nose.

That lack of subtlety and taking a reference one step too far sum up the most frustrating shortcoming of the seven-episode limited series, which premieres Sunday night. Adapted by Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar, the show on its own is a stylish, impressively shot and well-acted spy thriller following the travails of the protagonist, who is secretly a communist agent.

But crucially, the series loses the heft of the book, sanding down its sharp edges. Elements of its mordant satire don’t cut through, and the novel’s searing commentary on who gets to tell stories about war and how they’re too often flattened is largely forgotten, only really explored in that one episode.

To put it more bluntly, the book understands that the audience is smart. The series, however, seems to think that we can’t be trusted to piece everything together ourselves.

Visually, it’s hard not to be immediately drawn in by the show’s auteurist touches. Each episode opens with the familiar HBO static logo — but in a preview of what’s to come stylistically, the shot zooms in on the “O” to form part of a scrolling film reel. There’s a wealth of visual references to movies of the 1970s, including not only Coppola’s films but also Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver.”

Playing a protagonist known only as the Captain, Xuande carries the show as its breakout star.

As the protagonist, referred to only as the Captain, Hoa Xuande — best known for a recurring role on Netflix ’s live-action “Cowboy Bebop” series — carries the show as its breakout star. Around him, there’s a wonderful ensemble of supporting players, including Toan Le as his boss, the General; Fred Nguyen Khan as his childhood friend Bon; and Vy Le as Lana, the General’s daughter. Familiar faces also pop in and out of the series, like Sandra Oh, who is fantastic as always. And you might do the “Leo pointing” meme upon seeing the actors who appear in the movie within the show, adding to the meta quality of that storyline.

Then there’s the Robert Downey Jr. of it all. Much of the advertising for the series has highlighted the fact that the newly minted Oscar winner portrays multiple roles: several of the white men in the protagonist’s life, including a CIA agent and ally of the General; a racist and mansplaining “Oriental studies” professor; and a Republican congressman whose main campaign pitch involves pandering to the Vietnamese refugee community by touting his opposition to communism. Downey’s truly gonzo performance is a fun commentary on the interchangeability of these white men, all of whom represent the colonizer in various forms.

On a practical and mercenary level, his star power likely helped the series get made. (He also serves as an executive producer.) But after a few episodes, his stunt casting becomes distracting and even a bit grating.

That kind of maximalism hampers the series at every turn. Just when you’ve gotten the point, the show hits it again, in case it wasn’t clear the first time. Much of the book concerns all of the ways that the protagonist is grappling with dual identities in his life and how he never quite fits in anywhere. He’s the biracial “bastard” child of a Vietnamese woman and a French priest. He’s on both sides of the Vietnam War simultaneously, embraced by the American political establishment as an anticommunist fighter while secretly sending information back to a childhood best friend named Man, a communist operative.

Upon arriving in America as a refugee, he struggles with feeling not Vietnamese enough but not quite American either. All of those representations of duality are inherent to the book. But in the series, they’re often spelled out with too heavy a hand.

Sandra Oh plays Ms. Mori in HBO's adaptation of "The Sympathizer."

Maybe it’s a cliché to say this about an acclaimed novel, but so much of what makes the book a page turner is the text itself. This is especially true of the novel’s interiority, which is hard to capture on-screen without being blunt in the dialogue and visual cues. And so much of the book is about the written word. Case in point: The framing device of both the book and the series is a written confession from the protagonist, which can be clunkier to convey visually than on the page.

This isn’t the place to rehash the perennial question of whether certain books are unadaptable. Books and their screen versions have different reasons for existing. There are so many ways to approach the adaptation process that don’t fall into a simple binary of remaining faithful to the original material or not.

One central argument for this series is visibility: More people are likely going to encounter the story of “The Sympathizer” through the HBO show than the novel. And in our age of Hollywood conglomerates regurgitating existing IP and trying to squeeze every drop out of lemons that went dry long ago, it’s undoubtedly more creatively fresh to adapt a groundbreaking novel from an acclaimed Asian American author than to, say, reboot an old franchise and shoehorn in some surface-level diversity.

At the same time, it’s disappointing when the result strips away a lot of what makes the source material distinctive. There’s a biting irony in an adaptation of Nguyen’s book — a novel about how the stories we collectively tell about wars are far more complicated than two sides, and how they routinely get watered-down — being itself watered-down. But that’s Hollywood for you.

“The Sympathizer” premieres Sunday, April 14 on HBO.

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  1. Book Review: 'Man, the State, and War' by Kenneth Waltz

    1401. Kenneth Waltz's Man, the State, and War, a classic book first published in 1959, has become a cornerstone in international relations theory and is widely regarded as one of the most influential works. Waltz was a renowned American political scientist, highly regarded for his contributions to international relations.

  2. Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis

    Kenneth N. Waltz. 3.97. 1,933 ratings107 reviews. What are the causes of war? To answer this question, Professor Waltz examines the ideas of major thinkers throughout the history of Western civilization. He explores works both by classic political philosophers, such as St. Augustine, Hobbes, Kant, and Rousseau, and by modern psychologists and ...

  3. Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis on JSTOR

    What are the causes of war? To answer this question, ProfessorWaltz examines the ideas of major thinkers throughout the historyof Western civilization. He explo...

  4. Man, the State, and War

    Man, the State, and War. Man, the State, and War is a 1959 book on international relations by realist academic Kenneth Waltz. The book is influential within the field of international relations theory for establishing the three 'images of analysis' used to explain conflict in international politics: the international system, the state, and the ...

  5. Man, the State and War by Kenneth Waltz Essay (Book Review)

    Summary. When reading the book "Man, the State and War" by Kenneth Waltz, the main driving thesis behind the book immediately presents itself in the form of a question which is: "what is war?". Waltz answers this question by postulating the the origin of war comes from "within man, the inherent structure of separate states and due to ...

  6. Man, the State, and War

    Kenneth N. Waltz (1924-2013) was a preeminent scholar of international relations. He was Ford Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and was senior research scholar at the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, where he began his academic career. His books include Theory of International Politics (1979).

  7. Man, the State and War: a Theoretical Analysis

    Reviewed by Henry L. Roberts. In this thoughtful inquiry into the views of classical political theory on the nature and causes of war, Professor Waltz follows three principal themes or images: war as a consequence of the nature and behavior of man, as an outcome of the internal organization of states and as a product of international anarchy.

  8. Man, the State, and War

    Kenneth N. Waltz (1924-2013) was a preeminent scholar of international relations. He was Ford Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and was senior research scholar at the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, where he began his academic career. His books include Theory of International Politics (1979).

  9. Man, the State, and War : A Theoretical Analysis

    What are the causes of war? How might the world be made more peaceful? In this landmark work of international relations theory, first published in 1959, the eminent realist scholar Kenneth N. Waltz offers a foundational analysis of the nature of conflict between states. He explores works by both classic political philosophers, such as St. Augustine, Hobbes, Kant, and Rousseau, and modern ...

  10. Book Reviews : Man, the State and War. By KENNETH N. WALTZ. (New York

    Book Reviews : Man, the State and War. By KENNETH N. WALTZ. (New York: Columbia University Press. 1959. Pp. viii, 263. $5.50.) Bernard Hennessy View all authors and affiliations. ... Book Reviews : The Pursuit of Happiness in the Democratic Creed: An Analysis of Political Ethics. By URSULA M. VON ECKARDT, with an introduction by CARL J. FRIED RICH.

  11. Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis

    Book Review. Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis by Kenneth N. Waltz, New York, Columbia University Press, 2001 [1954], 263 pp., $30.00 (paper) William M. Hawley Santa Barbara, USA Correspondence [email protected]. Pages 870-872 Published online: 20 Nov 2019.

  12. Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical

    The first line of the book is, for me at least, political science's version of Call me Ishmael. Waltz divides his book into three separate sections (Man, State, and War) deducing the permissive cause of why wars are able to occur - the answer anarchy of the state system. This book is the foundation upon which all IR is built.

  13. Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Man, the State, and War

    Written as a doctoral thesis some 45 years ago, Kenneth Waltz's MAN, THE STATE AND WAR continues to be a staple in the field of international relations theory. Waltz's groundbreaking piece is a thorough analysis of the difficulties associated with the war-peace continuum.

  14. Man, the State, and War : A Theoretical Analysis

    Man, the State, and War. : Kenneth Neal Waltz. Columbia University Press, 2001 - History - 263 pages. What are the causes of war? To answer this question, Professor Waltz examines the ideas of major thinkers throughout the history of Western civilization. He explores works both by classic political philosophers, such as St. Augustine, Hobbes ...

  15. Book Review: Man, the State, and War

    Book Review: Man, the State, and War. K. D. McRae View all authors and affiliations. Based on: Man, the State, and War. By Waltz Kenneth N. 1959. (New York: Columbia University Press. ... Book Review: Spirited Politics â Religion and Public Life in Contemporary Southeast Asia Edited by Andrew C. Willford and Kenneth M. George (Ithaca, NY ...

  16. Book Reviews: Man, the State, and War, by Kenneth N. Waltz ...

    Learn from 1,682 book reviews of Man, the State, and War, by Kenneth N. Waltz. With recommendations from world experts and thousands of smart readers.

  17. A Criticism of Waltz's "Man the State and War"

    Man the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis August 5, 2010 Author: Waltz, Kenneth N. Title: Man the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis Publisher: New York, Columbia University Press, 2001 (originally published 1954). Main Thesis: Waltz' primary thesis in Man, the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis is essentially, "What is the cause ...

  18. Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis

    The first line of the book is, for me at least, political science's version of Call me Ishmael. Waltz divides his book into three separate sections (Man, State, and War) deducing the permissive cause of why wars are able to occur - the answer anarchy of the state system. This book is the foundation upon which all IR is built.

  19. Cecil Miller, Book Review:Man, the State, and War. Kenneth N. Waltz

    Book Review:Lines in the Sand: Justice and the Gulf War. Alan Geyer, Barbara G. Green; Ethics and the Gulf War: Religion, Rhetoric, and Righteousness. Kenneth L. Vaux; Engulfed in War: Just War and the Persian Gulf. Brien Hallett. [REVIEW] Michael J. Kelar - 1993 - Ethics 104 (1):190-.

  20. Man the State and War PDF Summary

    The book is full of valuable insight and approaches the analysis of the reasons for war in a clear and concise manner. Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer. Man the State and War Summary by Kenneth N. Waltz is a study on the causes of war, from an anthropological, psychological and ...

  21. Read an extract from Annie Jacobsen's terrifying new book Nuclear War

    Humans created the nuclear weapon in the twentieth century to save the world from evil, and now, in the twenty-first century, the nuclear weapon is about to destroy the world. To burn it all down ...

  22. The Rebel's Clinic: A Book Review

    Renowned for rejecting racism, Fanon made the struggle for justice and for mental health inseparable. 'The Rebel's Clinic' by Adam Shatz. Source: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024. "In front of ...

  23. 'We Were the Lucky Ones' on Hulu: Henry Lloyd-Hughes reflects on

    The book-to-screen miniseries tells the true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II and their determination to survive and reunite. ... man, these people love each other ...

  24. Man, the State, and War

    In this thoughtful inquiry into the views of classical political theory on the nature and causes of war, Professor Waltz follows three principal themes or images: war as a consequence of the nature and behavior of man, as an outcome of their internal organization of states, and as a product of international anarchy. Foreign Affairs

  25. 'Civil War' Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again

    Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor's face that, like Dunst's, expressed a nation's soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray ...

  26. 'Four Shots in the Night' Review: The Killing of an IRA Man

    The book opens with the approach of a British agent to a midlevel IRA man named Frank Hegarty on a cold Derry lane in 1980. With such scenes, "Four Shots" conjures the period's atmosphere of ...

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    111-year-old John Alfred Tinniswood from England is now the world's oldest living man, following the death of 114-year-old Juan Vicente Pérez (Venezuela).. 112-year-old Gisaburo Sonobe from Japan was initially expected to be the new record holder, but he was recently confirmed to have passed away on 31 March.

  29. Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical

    Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users.

  30. 'The Sympathizer' Review: HBO Watered-Down The Book

    HBO. There's a brief moment at just about the midpoint of HBO's adaptation of "The Sympathizer" when the show's recurring flaw really settles in. Its fourth episode chronicles the filming of a movie within the story. Like in the miniseries' source material — Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name ...