What can a house tell us about the person who lives there? Do we shape the buildings we live in, or are we formed by the places we call home? And why are we especially fascinated by the houses of the famous and often long-dead? In Lives of Houses, a group of notable biographers, historians, critics, and poets explores these questions and more through fascinating essays on the houses of great writers, artists, composers, and politicians of the past.Įditors Kate Kennedy and Hermione Lee are joined by wide-ranging contributors, including Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, David Cannadine, Roy Foster, Alexandra Harris, Daisy Hay, Margaret MacMillan, Alexander Masters, and Jenny Uglow. War: How Conflict Shaped Us explores such much-debated and controversial questions as: When did war first start? Does human nature doom us to fight one another? Why has war been described as the most organized of all human activities? Why are warriors almost always men? Is war ever within our control?ĭrawing on lessons from wars throughout the past, from classical history to the present day, MacMillan reveals the many faces of war-the way it has determined our past, our future, our views of the world, and our very conception of ourselves.Ī group of notable writers-including UK poet laureate Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, Margaret MacMillan, and Jenny Uglow-celebrate our fascination with the houses of famous literary figures, artists, composers, and politicians of the past. Margaret MacMillan looks at the ways in which war has influenced human society and how, in turn, changes in political organization, technology, or ideologies have affected how and why we fight.

War is an uncomfortable and challenging subject not least because it brings out both the vilest and the noblest aspects of humanity. Our very language, our public spaces, our private memories, and some of our greatest cultural treasures reflect the glory and the misery of war.

War has shaped humanity’s history, its social and political institutions, its values and ideas. The instinct to fight may be innate in human nature, but war-organized violence-comes with organized society. From the bestselling author of Paris 1919 comes a provocative view of war as an essential component of humanity and our history.

Margaret macmillan 1919