Between structural determinants and contingency: Michael Mann’s historical sociology of war - Michael Mann, On Wars (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2023, 607 p.)

War is increasingly a legitimate object of study in sociology, a discipline in which it used to be considered as a rather marginal subject 1 .Conversely, in disciplines in which war was a central of object of study from their inception, such as international relations (IR), researchers are increasingly turning towards more sociological perspectives, including in the study of war and organized violence 2 .In both cases, the main inspiration has often been a historical macro-sociology, in a Weberian vain, but in which a healthy dose of Marxism was often present 3 .More recently, microsociological approaches have also developed an interest in organized violence and armed combat 4 .In this context, On wars, by renowned historical sociologist Michael Mann, is an important book.Indeed, it brings the two abovementioned strands of research together.One the one hand, it draws on Weberian and Marxian traditions in sociology, both infusing the macro-sociological theoretical framework that Mann developed in his previous books 5 .In this book, the usefulness of this framework to the study of war is convincingly shown.On the other hand, the author also engages in cross-disciplinary debates with, for example, International Relations (IR) theory.It is in this context mostly the neorealist "school of IR" that Mann focuses upon.Other theoretical schools are mentioned but hardly debated in any systematic way and democratic peace theory is resolutely rejected.Moreover,