Victor Davis Hanson

Carnage and Culture (eBook, ePUB)

Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

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.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Seitenzahl: 544
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. Dezember 2007
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780307425188
• Artikelnr.: 38203108

Autorenporträt

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture. He is the author of The Soul of Battle, An Autumn of War, and Ripples of Battle, all published by Anchor Books. His most recent book is The Savior Generals (Bloomsbury 2013). Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007, the Bradley Prize in 2008, as well as the William F. Buckley Prize (2015), the Claremont Institute's Statesmanship Award (2006), and the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002). He divides his time between his farm in Selma, CA, where he was born in 1953, and the Stanford campus.

Inhaltsangabe

List of Maps
Preface
CHAPTER ONE
Why the West Has Won
Enlightened Thugs · The Primacy of Battle · Ideas of the West ·The Western
Way of War
PART ONE · CREATION
CHAPTER TWO
Freedom—or “To Live as You Please” · Salamis, September 28, 480 B.C.
The Drowned · The Achaemenids and Freedom ·The Persian Wars and the
Strategy of Salamis · The Battle ·Eleutheria · The Legacy of Salamis
CHAPTER THREE
Decisive Battle · Gaugamela, October 1, 331 B.C.
Angles of Vision · The Macedonian Military Machine · Killing Spree ·
Decisive Battle and Western Warfare
CHAPTER FOUR
Citizen Soldiers · Cannae, August 2, 216 B.C.
A Summer Slaughter · Hannibal’s Jaws · Carthage and the West · Legions of
Rome · The Idea of a Nation-in-Arms ·“Rulers of the Entire World”—the
Legacy of Civic Militarism
PART TWO · CONTINUITY
CHAPTER FIVE
Landed Infantry · Poitiers, October 11, 732
Horse Versus Foot · The Wall · The Hammer · Islam Ascendant ·Dark Ages? ·
Infantry, Property, and Citizenship · Poitiers and Beyond
CHAPTER SIX
Technology and the Wages of Reason · Tenochtitlán, June 24, 1520–August 13,
1521
The Battles for Mexico City · Aztec War · The Mind of the Conquistadors ·
Spanish Rationalism · Why Did the Castilians Win? · Reason and War
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Market—or Capitalism Kills · Lepanto, October 7, 1571
Galley War · Legends of Lepanto · Europe and the Ottomans · Capitalism, the
Ottoman Economy, and Islam · War and the Market
PART THREE · CONTROL
CHAPTER EIGHT
Discipline—or Warriors Are Not Always Soldiers · Rorke’s Drift, January
22–23, 1879
Killing Fields · The Imperial Way · Zulu Power and Impotence · Courage Is
Not Necessarily Discipline
CHAPTER NINE
Individualism · Midway, June 4–8, 1942
Floating Infernos · The Annihilation of the Devastators ·The Imperial Fleet
Moves Out · Western and Non-Western Japan ·Spontaneity and Individual
Initiative at Midway · Individualism in Western Warfare
CHAPTER TEN
Dissent and Self-Critique · Tet, January 31–April 6, 1968
Battles Against the Cities · Victory as Defeat · Aftermath · War amid
Audit, Scrutiny, and Self-Critique
EPILOGUE
Western Warfare—Past and Future
The Hellenic Legacy · Other Battles? ·The Singularity of Western Military
Culture · The Continuity of Western Lethality ·The West Versus the West?
AFTERWORD
Carnage and Culture
after September 11, 2001
GLOSSARY
FOR FURTHER READING
INDEX