How Fighting Ends: A History of Surrender

There are many histories of how wars have begun, but very few which discuss how they have ended. This book fills that gap. Beginning with the Stone Age and ending with globalized terrorism, it addresses the specific issue of surrender, rather than the subsequent establishment of peace. At its heart is the individual warrior or soldier, and his or her decision to lay down arms. In the ancient world surrender led in most cases to slavery, but a slave still lived rather than died. In the modern world international law gives the soldiers rights as prisoners of war, and those rights include the prospect of their eventual return home. But individuals can surrender at any point in a war, and without having such an effect that they end the war. The termination of hostilities depends on a collective act for its consequences to be decisive. It also requires the enemy to accept the offer to surrender in the midst of combat. In other words, like so much else in war, surrender depends on reciprocity - on the readiness of one side to stop fighting and of the other to accept that readiness. This volume argues that surrender is the single biggest contributor to the containment of violence in warfare, offering the vanquished the opportunity to survive and the victor the chance to show moderation and magnanimity. Since the rules of surrender have developed over time, they form a key element in understanding the cultural history of warfare.

Holger Afflerbach, from 2002-2006, was DAAD Professor of History at Emory University. Afflerbach specializes in late nineteenth and twentieth Century German history; international relations; military history, particularly World War I and World War II; and Austrian and Italian history. Among his publications are the biography of the Prussian War Minister and Chief of General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn (Munich 1994, second edition 1996); his study of the Triple Alliance, entitled Der Dreibund. Europaische Grossmacht und Allianzpolitik vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg (Vienna 2002); and a popular book on the history of the Atlantic: Das entfesselte Meer (Munich, 2002). He also edited an edition of sources from the German Headquarters in World War I under the title Kaiser Wilhelm II: als Oberster Kriegsherr wahrend des Ersten Weltkrieges - Quellen aus der militarischen Umgebung des Kaisers (Munich, 2005). He is is Professor of Central European History at the University of Leeds.

Hew Strachan's research interests are military history from the eighteenth century to date, including contemporary strategic studies, but with particular interest in the First World War and in the history of the British Army. Among his numerous publications are: European Armies and the Conduct of War (London, 1983); Wellington's Legacy: The Reform of the British Army 1830-54 (Manchester, 1984); From Waterloo to Balaclava: Tactics, Technology and the British Army (Cambridge, 1985) ; The Politics of the British Army (Oxford, 1997); (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War (Oxford, 1998); The First World War: A New Illustrated History (London, 2003). He is Chichele Professor of the History of War at All Souls College, Oxford.