Eating One’s Own: Examining Civil War: A Conversation with David Armitage

This book is based on an in-depth conversation with intellectual historian David Armitage, the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University. This conversation covers Armitage’s research on the history of ideas of civil war from Ancient Rome to the present. A salient feature of his work is a strong focus on etymology as it relates to our understanding of how people interpreted (or misinterpreted) and perceived events in history.
This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, Imagining the Possibilities, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:
I. Historical Origins - In search of multiple perspectives
II. The Semantic Archaeologist - Analyzing sedimented meanings
III. In Search of a Definition - Francis Lieber’s “ticklish business”
IV. Bellum Civile - The Roman reference point
V. What Is To Be Done? - Applying historical understanding to the modern world
VI. Historical Relevance - More prevalent than often recognized
VII. Oceans of Possibilities - Future work
Eating One’s Own: Examining Civil War is also part of the five-part Ideas Roadshow Collection, Conversations About History, Volume 3, which is available in hardcover, paperback and electronic format.
About Ideas Roadshow Conversations: Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research.