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 … 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.
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This wonderful book has eerie relevance in today’s changing political world. Athens, the great military empire and cultural powerhouse, drew the envy of tiny, backward Sparta. The ensuing war between these two Greek cities would be the template for all future wars, claimed Thucydides, the great, first historian of man’s behavior. In our modern age where crucial political and military decisions are suddenly being taken for vain and ill-informed short-term political reasons, this extraordinary book is essential reading. I recommend it without reservation.
Detailed account of the Peloponnesian Wars by a leading military scholar
A superb and meditative history of the Peloponnesian War and its significance – with lessons here for our own day. One of the best histories I’ve ever read, penned by possibly the greatest living American historian..
Always recommend a book by VDH
Good analysis of the Pelopponesian War from an unusual perspective. At least passing familiarity with the events of the war is helpful because this is not a narrative history
A very different take on a well-trampled topic. I found it extremely interesting though at times a bit repetitious.
Great book about the saddest war in Western history.
Masterful set of essays on the Peloponessian War by a great Classicist.
It could have been so much better. The author should have told this history as a story in chronological order. There are many twists and turns in this long (30 years) war. I love history but have never studied the Pelopenesion War. I now know they were Spartans. The author begins by telling you the outcomes of all the significant battles and the winner of the war in 2 pages at the very beginning, with no spoiler alert. The actual history was amazing and surprising. His is an excellent story teller except he usually tells the outcome at the beginning. He also jumps from battle to battle with no concern that some of these events are 20 and 30 years apart.
I was frustrated at how much more interesting this could have been. However I am learning much about an event I had heard of but knew nothing about.
This highly original essay on the Peloponnesian Wars treats the twenty seven years of savage bellicosity through a series of chapters treating fundamental characteristics of the warfare of the period: causes, war on land, famine and disease, terror, siege craft, horses, naval campaigns and the ultimate ruin of most of ancient Greece.
Parallels to more recent wars are unavoidable. Athens and Sparta had united the cities of ancient Greece in a successful campaign to defeat a powerful and numerically superior enemy. A half century later they were locked in a deadly contest. As the stakes became increasingly desperate, innovation in tactics and technology led to a cycle of escalation; rules were nonexistent. The costs were appalling, with the winner no more capable of managing the peace than the loser. The main combatants, Athens and Sparta, drew in allies, client city-states, slaves and foreign ‘investors ” as the financial reserves ran dry and human resources were depleted. Plagues, bad decisions, valour and hubris all have their parts to play.
In the end, the “golden age” of imperial Athens and the much feared military might of Sparta were over. The stage was set for a ruthless Macedonian, Alexander, to apply the lessons learned, build on innovation and go on an unprecedented spree of military adventurism.
Really enjoyed this book. It was very readable and informative with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of the war while at the same time doing a good job maintaining the chronology of the conflict.
interesting and original aproach over a fascinating historical period.
a totally different view of the war. views it in unique ways.