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Carnage and Culture

Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power

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About this listen

Examining nine landmark battles from ancient to modern times - from Salamis, where outnumbered Greeks devastated the slave army of Xerxes, to Cortes' 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.

©2001 Victor Davis Hanson (P)2019 Tantor Anthropology Military Political Science Politics & Government Latin America Imperialism Middle East Socialism Middle Ages Ancient History Thought-Provoking Self-Determination Vietnam War Iran War Africa Social justice Imperial Japan Mexico Ancient Greece Interwar Period
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great analysis of the western and eastern ethos on war. I love this guy's YouTube videos too

Brilliant

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the first chapters of the book were full of irrational comparisons and stretched arguments. I cannot in my right conscious continue reading it.

returned the book before finishing

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