A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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51 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Feb 02, 2008 Type: User Review |
A good introduction to war in Ancient Greece
Victor Davis Hanson is my favorite military author. His "The Soul of Battle" covers three generals who led free men and were victorious. This prompted me to track down the biography "Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885-1945." George Patton was...
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 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Dec 31, 2007 Type: User Review |
A War Like No Other: Victor Davis Hanson At His Very Best
The Peloponnesian War is perhaps the most difficult period of Classical Greek history to comprehend. Those who have read Thucydides' account of the events of that war know how problematic it can be to to follow a strictly chronological...
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 4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Dec 09, 2007 Type: User Review |
Read before Thucydides' Peloponesian War
I wish before reading Thucydides' Peloponesian War, that I had read this book as it explained what was happening. Many details I missed such as why the Spartans could cross in force so many times and do so little damage and the purpose behind the...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Oct 06, 2007 Type: User Review |
A history teacher's review
"A War Like No Other" is classical historian Victor Davis Hanson's offering on the Peloponnesian War - the 27 year struggle between the Delian League (Athens and its allies) and the Peloponnesian League (Sparta and its allies) that ran on and off...
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4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 20, 2007 Type: User Review |
Best book of its kind
I am a big fan of those authors like Jared Diamond who try to look at the big picture, but I also occasionally read more "conventional" history which focuses on events during a particular time and place. "A War Like No Other" is the best book of...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 29, 2007 Type: User Review |
Excellent
Hanson has crafted a history of the Peloponnesian War which breaks form the traditional, chronological storyline. Instead, Hanson has broken down the conflict into the types of warfare and the whole book is essentially detailing the evolution of...
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4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 17, 2007 Type: User Review |
Hard to Follow
This book breaks the Peloponnesian War into its component parts and discusses how each influenced the strategy of the two sides. The author seems to presuppose a working knowledge of the conflict on the part of the reader. Because this was my...
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 3.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Feb 04, 2007 Type: User Review |
A Landmark History
I was encouraged to read Hanson's history, "A War Like No Other", because John Keegan heaped praise upon it in his "History of Warfare". As a devoted reader of Keegan's, I took his advice, picked up a copy, and was not disappointed. It is easy to...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jan 11, 2007 Type: User Review |
Hanson does it again
If like me you have read previous books on Greek history by Victor Davis Hanson you will know what to expect. This has all the usual Hanson fingerprints - lively but prolix, at times repetitive, with one or two stylistic quirks (in this book...
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4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jan 09, 2007 Type: User Review |
A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
excellent
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4.00/5 |
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