The Code of the Warrior

Exploring Warrior Values Past and Present

By (author) Shannon E. French Foreword by Joseph J. Thomas

Not available to order

Publication date:

17 November 2016

Length of book:

298 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442254916

This revised and expanded second edition of The Code of the Warrior—a book George R. Lucas has described as "groundbreaking" and "now part of the Military Ethics canon"—takes the reader on a tour of warrior cultures and their values, from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the “barbaric” Vikings and Celts, from chivalric knights to Native American tribesmen, from Chinese warrior monks pursuing enlightenment to Japanese samurai practicing death. This new edition enhances these discussions with analyses of modern-day warriors and examines the ethical dimensions of emerging military technology such as drones, cyber warfare, and bio-enhanced troops. A new chapter also addresses the Islamic warrior code, both in its historic and modern implementations. Drawing these historical traditions up to the present, this book seeks a code for the warriors of today, as they do battle in asymmetric conflicts both remotely and face-to-face against the scourge of global terrorism. This book offers a comprehensive survey of historic and modern warrior cultures for students of military history, philosophy, and ethics.

Foreword
Acknowledgments

1 Why Warriors Need a Code
2 The Homeric Hero: A Hector Who Wins?
3 The Two Faces of Rome
4 Vikings: Vengeance, Valkyries, and Valhalla
5 “Never to do outrageousity nor Murder…”: The Code of the Warrior in the World of Mallory’s Morte d’Arthur
6 Indigenous Americans: Warriors of the Sacred Plains
7 Chinese Warrior Monks: The Martial Artists of Shaolin
8 The Soul of the Samurai: Duty, Devotion, and Death
9 Revelation and the Rules of Engagement: Sultan Saladin and the Warriors of Islam
10 The Warrior’s Code Today: Do We Need New Ethics of War?

Index
About the Author

Waiting until the fog of war has descended is too late to determine where the thin line between warrior and murderer is drawn. In The Code of the Warrior, French enlightens our thinking on this important question, offering fascinating historical examples and the kind of penetrating analysis that can only come from a philosopher devoted to the character development of our future warriors.