Ancient versus Modern Armies

Bertrand de Jouvenel's On Power breaks down the alarming differences between pre-1789 armies and modern armies. He shows that the size of armies started to grow with the rise of republics and democracies. As people started to view the "nation" as their own (a public thing) instead of a private possession of the king, it became more natural for the people to die for it, so armies started increasing in size.