Download or read book Ripples of Battle written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2004-10-12 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effects of war refuse to remain local: they persist through the centuries, sometimes in unlikely ways far removed from the military arena. In Ripples of Battle, the acclaimed historian Victor Davis Hanson weaves wide-ranging military and cultural history with his unparalleled gift for battle narrative as he illuminates the centrality of war in the human experience. The Athenian defeat at Delium in 424 BC brought tactical innovations to infantry fighting; it also assured the influence of the philosophy of Socrates, who fought well in the battle. Nearly twenty-three hundred years later, the carnage at Shiloh and the death of the brilliant Southern strategist Albert Sidney Johnson inspired a sense of fateful tragedy that would endure and stymie Southern culture for decades. The Northern victory would also bolster the reputation of William Tecumseh Sherman, and inspire Lew Wallace to pen the classic Ben Hur. And, perhaps most resonant for our time, the agony of Okinawa spurred the Japanese toward state-sanctioned suicide missions, a tactic so uncompromising and subversive, it haunts our view of non-Western combatants to this day.
Download or read book Carnage and Culture written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining nine landmark battles from ancient to modern times--from Salamis, where outnumbered Greeks devastated the slave army of Xerxes, to Cortes’s conquest of Mexico to the Tet offensive--Victor Davis Hanson explains why the armies of the West have been the most lethal and effective of any fighting forces in the world. Looking beyond popular explanations such as geography or superior technology, Hanson argues that it is in fact Western culture and values–the tradition of dissent, the value placed on inventiveness and adaptation, the concept of citizenship–which have consistently produced superior arms and soldiers. Offering riveting battle narratives and a balanced perspective that avoids simple triumphalism, Carnage and Culture demonstrates how armies cannot be separated from the cultures that produce them and explains why an army produced by a free culture will always have the advantage.
Download or read book A War Like No Other written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of our most provocative military historians, Victor Davis Hanson has given us painstakingly researched and pathbreaking accounts of wars ranging from classical antiquity to the twenty-first century. Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict with our most urgent modern concerns to create his most engrossing work to date, A War Like No Other. Over the course of a generation, the Hellenic city-states of Athens and Sparta fought a bloody conflict that resulted in the collapse of Athens and the end of its golden age. Thucydides wrote the standard history of the Peloponnesian War, which has given readers throughout the ages a vivid and authoritative narrative. But Hanson offers readers something new: a complete chronological account that reflects the political background of the time, the strategic thinking of the combatants, the misery of battle in multifaceted theaters, and important insight into how these events echo in the present. Hanson compellingly portrays the ways Athens and Sparta fought on land and sea, in city and countryside, and details their employment of the full scope of conventional and nonconventional tactics, from sieges to targeted assassinations, torture, and terrorism. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors such as Pericles and Lysander, artists, among them Aristophanes, and thinkers including Sophocles and Plato. Hanson’s perceptive analysis of events and personalities raises many thought-provoking questions: Were Athens and Sparta like America and Russia, two superpowers battling to the death? Is the Peloponnesian War echoed in the endless, frustrating conflicts of Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and the current Middle East? Or was it more like America’s own Civil War, a brutal rift that rent the fabric of a glorious society, or even this century’s “red state—blue state” schism between liberals and conservatives, a cultural war that manifestly controls military policies? Hanson daringly brings the facts to life and unearths the often surprising ways in which the past informs the present. Brilliantly researched, dynamically written, A War Like No Other is like no other history of this important war.
Download or read book Wars of the Ancient Greeks Smithsonian History of Warfare written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2006-12-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brilliant account covers a millennium of Greek warfare. With specially commissioned battle maps and vivid illustrations, Victor Davis Hanson takes the reader into the heart of Greek warfare, classical beliefs, and heroic battles. This colorful portrait of ancient Greek culture explains why their approach to fighting was so ruthless and so successful. Development of the Greek city-state and the rivalries of Athens and Sparta. Rise of Alexander the Great and the Hellenization of the Western world. Famous thinkers—Sophocles, Socrates, Demosthenes—who each faced his opponent in battle, armed with spear and shield. Unsurpassed military theories that still influence the structure of armies and the military today.
Download or read book The Soul of Battle written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1999 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the international bestseller "The Western Way of War" comes a fresh, exciting look at three armies whose intense spirit of mission, coupled with the genius of their leaders, led them to triumph. Maps.
Download or read book Hoplites written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating research found in ancient literary, iconographic, epigraphic, and archaeological sources, this book explores the experiences of the soldiers who conducted battle on the small plains of ancient Greece. The volume, which draws on the accumulated expertise of nine American and British scholars, emphasizes the actual techniques of fighting and practical concerns as the use of commands, music in warfare, the use of "dog-tags", and ritual on the battlefield.
Download or read book The Western Way of War written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greeks of the classical age invented not only the central idea of Western politics--that the power of state should be guided by a majority of its citizens--but also the central act of Western warfare, the decisive infantry battle. Instead of ambush, skirmish, maneuver, or combat between individual heroes, the Greeks of the fifth century b.c. devised a ferocious, brief, and destructive head-on clash between armed men of all ages. In this bold, original study, Victor Davis Hanson shows how this brutal enterprise was dedicated to the same outcome as consensual government--an unequivocal, instant resolution to dispute. The Western Way of War draws from an extraordinary range of sources--Greek poetry, drama, and vase painting, as well as historical records--to describe what actually took place on the battlefield. It is the first study to explore the actual mechanics of classical Greek battle from the vantage point of the infantryman--the brutal spear-thrusting, the difficulty of fighting in heavy bronze armor which made it hard to see, hear and move, and the fear. Hanson also discusses the physical condition and age of the men, weaponry, wounds, and morale. This compelling account of what happened on the killing fields of the ancient Greeks ultimately shows that their style of armament and battle was contrived to minimize time and life lost by making the battle experience as decisive and appalling as possible. Linking this new style of fighting to the rise of constitutional government, Hanson raises new issues and questions old assumptions about the history of war.
Download or read book The Savior Generals written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moving portraits of five commanders whose dynamic leadership styles changed the course of warfare and history trace the stories of Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway and David Petraeus, evaluating their pivotal military roles and the controversies that marked their careers.
Download or read book Why the West Has Won written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2002 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Why The West Has Won' provides a history of the rise to dominance of the West, exploring the links between cultural values and military success.
Download or read book Summary of Victor Davis Hanson s Ripples of Battle written by Everest Media, and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-05-18T22:59:00Z with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The American plan for the invasion of Okinawa was simple: kill so many Japanese, destroy so many aircraft, and sink so many ships that the United States would never want to go through such a ordeal again. But the Japanese had different goals, which were to kill so many Americans that the United States would never want to go through such a ordeal again. #2 The American invasion of Okinawa was not as easy as it seemed. The Japanese had planned to let the Americans land on the beaches unopposed, then lure them into well-fortified Japanese positions in the southern part of the island. By day, there would be hardly any Japanese in sight; at night, tens of thousands would shell and attack American lines. #3 The American invasion of Okinawa was led by General Buckner, who commanded all land forces in the invasion. He looked not at the nature of the island, but at the unprecedented killing power of the American fleet, the logistical capacity of the American army, and the deadly nature of his Marines. #4 The American generals knew nothing of the challenges of Okinawa's steep gorges and impenetrable terrain, the deadly nature of the kamikaze threat, or the frequency of cloudy and rainy weather over the island. They believed that the defenders would be defeated within days.
Download or read book Mexifornia written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is part history, part political analysis and part memoir. It is an intensely personal book about what has changed in California over the last quarter century.
Download or read book Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece Revised edition written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1998-10-20 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Greeks were for the most part a rural, not an urban, society. And for much of the Classical period, war was more common than peace. Almost all accounts of ancient history assume that farming and fighting were critical events in the lives of the citizenry. Yet never before have we had a comprehensive modern study of the relationship between agriculture and warfare in the Greek world. In this completely revised edition of Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Victor Davis Hanson provides a systematic review of Greek agriculture and warfare and describes the relationship between these two important aspects of life in ancient communities. With careful attention to agronomic as well as military details, this well-written, thoroughly researched study reveals the remarkable resilience of those farmland communities. In the past, scholars have assumed that the agricultural infrastructure of ancient society was often ruined by attack, as, for example, Athens was relegated to poverty in the aftermath of the Persian and later Peloponnesian invasions. Hanson's study shows, however, that in reality attacks on agriculture rarely resulted in famines or permanent agrarian depression. Trees and vines are hard to destroy, and grainfields are only briefly vulnerable to torching. In addition, ancient armies were rather inefficient systematic ravagers and instead used other tactics, such as occupying their enemies' farms to incite infantry battle. Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece suggests that for all ancient societies, rural depression and desolation came about from more subtle phenomena—taxes, changes in political and social structure, and new cultural values—rather than from destructive warfare.
Download or read book The Second World Wars written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A definitive account of World War II by America's preeminent military historian. World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Never before had a war been fought on so many diverse landscapes and in so many different ways, from rocket attacks in London to jungle fighting in Burma to armor strikes in Libya. The Second World Wars examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. Drawing on 3,000 years of military history, bestselling author Victor Davis Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war's origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory. An authoritative new history of astonishing breadth, The Second World Wars offers a stunning reinterpretation of history's deadliest conflict.
Download or read book The End of Sparta written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-10-18 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tale inspired by the battles of ancient Greek military leader Epaminondas is told through the eyes of a farmer who leaves his home to serve under the general and who is swept up against his better judgment in the fervor to bring democracy to regions oppressed by the Spartans. A first novel by the historian author of The Father of Us All. 40,000 first printing.
Download or read book Fields Without Dreams written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1980s, 2,000 family farms went out of business every week. Fields Without Dreams tells Hanson's passionate, angry, loving, and lyrical story. A fifth-generation California vine and fruit grower, Hanson and his family faced an overwhelming personal crisis when the great "raisin boom" of the 1970s was followed by the great "raisin crash" of the 1980s.
Download or read book The Ripple Effect written by Alex Prud'homme and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-04-10 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Alex Prud'homme's remarkable work of investigative journalism shows how fresh water is the pressing global issue of the twenty-first century"--
Download or read book Reclaiming Surrendered Ground written by Jim Logan and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2009-05-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes Christians forget they have an enemy. But let your guard down for just a moment and Satan -- ever watchful for an opportunity -- is waiting to attack not just you but your family as well. Jim Logan shows how Christ alone can save your home from the destructive powers of bitterness, unforgiveness, pride, and anger.
