Civil WarsA highly original history of the least understood and most intractable form of organised human aggression, from ancient Rome to our present conflict ridden world We think we know civil war when we see it. Yet ideas of what it is, and isn't, have a long and contested history. Defining the term is acutely political, for ideas about what makes a war "civil" often depend on whether one is ruler or rebel, victor or vanquished, sufferer or outsider; it can