It begins with a seemingly simple question: Is war inherent to humans, or is it a result of their history? Armin Eich opts in „The Sons of Mars“consciously against the more comfortable answer. War, so his central thesis, is not an anthropological fate but a historical product. A sad development, not a constant. He directs attention away from the tiresome question of human nature towards the conditions that produce war in the first place.
Armin Eich is an ancient historian and professor of ancient history at the University of Wuppertal. His research primarily focuses on the political and economic structures of ancient societies, as well as military and rule in the Greco-Roman world. His work repeatedly revolves around the question of how power is organized, from political economy to the role of armies in the empire.„The Sons of Mars“bundles these perspectives into a grand historical narrative about the emergence of war as a social system.
War as a System
Those expecting great generals, dramatic battles, or strategic turning points will be disappointed here. Instead, the focus is on the Conditions, under which war becomes possible in the first place and eventually normalizes. Eich is not writing a classic military history here. Technology, economics, and social organization are the true protagonists of this history. In doing so, he reconstructs from the very beginning the dynamics that have shaped war over millennia. Everyday life that humans have woven in.
This makes the book refreshing. currently. For whoever understands war as a historical phenomenon can no longer consider it an unavoidable constant. Eich is thus writing against an attitude that accepts violence as part of human nature. The Sons of Mars appears in C.H.Beck Verlag, includes around 280 pages and is available as a hardcover edition. A book for everyone who doesn't want to settle for simple answers but is ready to continue thinking about the history of the war as an open question.
The Sons of Mars and Armin Eich: A Historian Against Easy Answers
Armin Eich writes as if he's pursuing a persistent misunderstanding. Not in the sense of dry scholarship, but with methodological rigor. He argues against hasty certainties, against simplistic theses, and against the temptation to force complex findings into simple narratives. This is particularly evident in his engagement with the question of whether war is „always“existed. Eich dismantles this misconception with almost detective precision.
Archaeological finds, often referred to as Receipts for prehistoric wars, prove to be ambivalent upon closer inspection. Injured skeletons are not automatically victims of battles. Violence is not war. Many of the supposed proofs do not withstand differentiated analysis. These argumentative patience is one of the book’s great strengths. For in doing so, Eich forces his readers to endure uncertainty. He replaces simple answers with better questions. This also constitutes a literary quality: suspense here does not arise from dramatic events, but rather through the The Struggle for Insight.
How War Arises and Why It Remains
The real strength of the book lies in the long perspective that the author clearly demonstrates here. Because Eich shows how violence over For millennia changed, condensed, and organized. War arises not suddenly. It grows out of the Structures out, with which societies and those in power secure resources, distribute power, and maintain their order. Eich's perspective on the is particularly striking Bronze Age.
Here it becomes apparent how closely war is linked to resources, trade, and social hierarchy. The sword appears not just as a weapon, but as an expression of new order, where violence is professionalized and aestheticized. This perspective shifts the frame. Civilization no longer appears as an antithesis to war, but as its prerequisite. Progress and violence are therefore not opposites, but often two sides of the same development.
For anyone who wants to delve deeper, we've found a video about the book for you.
The Sons of Mars: A Book That Reaches into the Present
In the end, there is an uncomfortable and bitter realization: if war is not inherent, then it is also not unavoidable. That's precisely where the challenge of this book lies. Because the disappearance of war is not an automatic development. It requires conscious, long-term efforts and, above all, an understanding of its historical conditions. „The Sons of Mars“is therefore more than a historical non-fiction book.
It permanently shifts one's perspective. After reading it, the question is no longer whether humans are violent, but rather under what circumstances and for what those in power organize, legitimize, and use violence as normal to enforce. This is not an easy book. Its density of detail demands attention, its argumentation patience. But therein also lies its strength. Armin Eich writes against simplification, hitting a nerve of our time. But above all, he takes away from war what makes it so dangerous: its naturalness!
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