Blainey’s ‘quiet classic’ on war and peace
By Paul Monk
Geoffrey Blainey is 95 – a venerable age. He remains lucid and productive even so – rather like David Attenborough, who, at 99, has just released and featured in his latest nature documentary, Ocean. Blainey is our country’s finest historian emeritus. The reprinting and updating of one of his most striking books – The
Causes of War (2025) – first published in 1973, then republished in 1977 and 1988, is timely. Its observations and lessons are richly illuminating in the current, disturbing international climate.