ABSTRACT
One of the principal reasons that war became increasingly inhumane in the modern era was the extent to which it was deemed to test the viability of entire societies and their way of life. That was the terrible imperative of ‘a people’s war’. The technology of mass destruction was mobilised by entire communities which had an inexhaustible will to carry on to unconditional victory at the risk, of course, of unconditional defeat. Every society (democratic or totalitarian) expected greater courage from its citizens than perhaps ever before.
