Mark Vernon
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War. What is it good for? William James and Adam Smith explain

20 September 2025. From the archive of Mark's older writing; new posts are on Substack.


William Blake reflects on the American War of Independence. Image: Yale Center for British Art

Why people go to war is puzzling. Historians still debate the origins of the First World War, for example, no expert quite nailing the reasons that the great powers tipped the globe into industrialised catastrophe.

But how to understand the energy of enmity is again pressing. Conflicts in Europe and elsewhere show that default peace is a turn-of-the-millennium pipedream; everlasting wars are a seeming inevitability in the twenty-first century.

A new essay at my Substack, A Golden String. Continue reading here…