Provocative and eye-opening, Why We Fight is one of three slim selections of philosophical texts and excerpts—along with Why We Need Love and Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter—introduced and contextualized by acclaimed author Simon Van Booy (Love Begins in Winter, The Secret Lives of People in Love).

This book explores how some of the greatest minds of civilization have tackled a question that continues to play a vital part in our lives today. In Why We Fight, Simon Van Booy curates an enlightening collection of excerpts, passages, and paintings, presenting works by Sophocles, Tacitus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, William Shakespeare, Emily Brontë, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Walt Whitman, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, James Tissot, James Joyce, General George Patton, and others.