Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War

A New York Times Notable Book

An ALA Notable Book

"Original and illuminating." --The Washington Post

What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued in paperback, Blood Rites takes readers on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of twentieth-century "total war."

Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehisto...