A Current Reading of Man, The State, and War by Kenneth Waltz

As a former International Affairs scholar, I accumulated a lot of political theory books. Some I read, some I hope to, and some I may never get to. But they look good on my bookshelves.

One of the books I have always been interested in reading and recently finished is Man, The State, and War by Kenneth Waltz. Waltz was a giant in International Affairs according to his obituary in the New York Times and Man, The State, and War was his first major work. What started as his doctoral dissertation became one of the premier books for explaining how nation states interact with each other.

According to the price tag on the used copy I have, I either bought it for $1 or I acquired it from the shelves of my mother’s since closed used book store. Or maybe I bought it from her for a dollar.

Unlike other art, we don’t price books based on their relevance to society. $1 for a book that helped form an entire line of modern political thought. Although some who oppose the multi-national approach the world has taken in the last 60 years may feel $1 or even less is appropriate.

That’s my goal here: to publish my thoughts on Man, The State, and War and look at Waltz through the spectrum of what is currently happening internationally in 2018.