From one of the most respected military historians working today, an illuminating and brilliantly written exploration of war's profound impact -- social and cultural as well as military -- on the cultures that wage it. First time in paperback.
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.
By:
Victor Davis Hanson
Imprint: Anchor Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 203mm,
Width: 131mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 288g
ISBN: 9780385721943
ISBN 10: 0385721943
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 15 November 2004
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Maps Introduction CHAPTER 1 The Wages of Suicide: Okinawa, April 1–July 2, 1945 Recipe for a Holocaust The Laboratory of Suicide Divine Wind The Military Lessons Epilogue: The Men of Okinawa CHAPTER 2 Shiloh’s Ghosts, April 6–7, 1862 Morning: The Birth of Uncle Billy Afternoon: The Myth of the Lost Opportunity Evening: Ben-Hur Night: The Klansman Postmortem CHAPTER 3 The Culture of Delium, November 424 B.C. The Battle Euripides and the Rotting Dead Thespian Tragedies The Faces of Delium Socrates Slain? Beauty from the Dead The Birth of Tactics What Was Delium? Epilogue: The Imprint of Battle Acknowledgments Bibliography Index
Reviews for Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think
What [Hanson] brings to the public discussion along with an unusually vigorous prose style and a remarkable erudition is a philosophy of war not meant for the weak kneed or faint hearted. Hanson does not celebrate war, but he accepts it as a fact of life, a part of the human condition that no amount of idealistic preaching or good intentions can will away. <i>The New York Times Book Review</i> Victor Davis Hanson is refreshingly unabashed about being an old-fashioned military historian . . . [and] he displays an exceptional chronological sweep. <i>--The Washington Post Book World</i> What s most impressive about Hanson s work is his constant reminder that history is not just a faceless story of economic and social progress, but also one about the strength of individuals, brought to life here in masterly prose. --<i>The Christian Science Monitor His premise is fascinating and well executed. . . . A great little book. . . . Hanson is a superb storyteller and a clear and concise writer. --<i>The Washington Times
