The Great Illusion by Norman Angell

The progress from cannibalism to Herbert Spencer -- The disappearance of religious oppression by government -- Disappearance of the duel -- The Crusaders and the Holy Sepulchre -- The wail of militarist writers at man's drift away from militancy.

All of us who have had occasion to discuss this subject are familiar with the catchphrases with which the whole matter is so often dismissed. "You cannot change human nature," "What man always has been during thousands of years, he always will be," are the sort of dicta generally delivered as self-evident propositions that do not need discussion. Or if, in deference to the fact that very profound changes, in which human nature is involved, have taken place in the habits of mankind, the statement of the proposition is somewhat less dogmatic, we are given to understand that any serious modification of the tendency to go to war can only be looked for in "thousands of years."