Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
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 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.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
A story like no other.
Customer Rating:
This is a great effort from a prolific and serious writer of history. I have read many books on the Greek wars during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. and this is so all inclusive that it is a must read.
Engaging Military History
Customer Rating:
Victor Davis Hanson is a hero of mine, a prolific columnist and superb speaker on history and current events. He understands that nothing is new and everything has been tried before, with the lessons to be learned right there in broad daylight for those who want to see them. He deals in facts and razor sharp logic, with a crisp and accessible (if somewhat repetitive) writing style.
As he makes clear in the prologue, A War Like No Other is not a chronological history of the political and strategic aspects of the war. Instead it focuses on the battle tactics on land and at sea under the pressures imposed by war, plague and civil strife. Hanson does not disappoint in this absorbing account of the human side of the conflict, the ravaging of the land, the wretchedness of the Athenian plague and the stark realities of hoplite and trireme warfare.
One caution is that the book skips back and forth among various battles and participants during the 27-year conflict. This is can be confusing without a sequential understanding of events.
A good introduction to war in Ancient Greece
Customer Rating:
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 a flawed, but fascinating person. Dr. Hanson's chapter nine of "Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power" helped me understand some of the cultural advantages the Americans had over the Japanese in World War II.
"A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War" is about Sparta and its allies fighting Athenians. Before this book I knew very little about the war, other than Sparta had fought and eventually conquered Athens.
Dr. Hanson does a great job of explaining the background of the war, who the major players were, why Sparta led the attack on Athens, why the war lasted so long and why Athens finally lost.
These were two strong cities which had vastly different strengths. Sparta had the best warriors in Greece. Athens would not meet them on land. Athens dominated the ocean. Sparta did not have a fleet until Persia financed the fleet which eventually destroyed hundreds of Athenian triremes. Without their fleet to protect the food ships, Athens started to starve and eventually surrendered.
Often while reading this book I thought the Athenians were idiots. For example after years of war the majority of Athens thought it was a good idea to start another war. They launched hundreds of ships and sent 45,000 men to try to conquer Syracuse. They lost all their ships and men. This was the beginning of the end. Almost as famous as "Never get involved in a land war in Asia" is don't start a second front in a war. The Athenians were already out numbered, yet they talked themselves into attacking Syracuse. Another stupid thing was several times Sparta said we've had enough, how about we end the war, and Athens said no, we're safe behind our walls we'll keep attacking your allies from the sea.
But in fairness Sparta and their allies also made a number of blunders. Sparta started off the war by leading a large army up to Athens and dared them to come out and fight. Athens declined the opportunity for suicide, so Sparta and friends went home. The next year Sparta came back, and then went back home. And again. And again. They did they five or six times. It took Sparta a long while to realize that Athens was not going to play Sparta's game.
I greatly enjoyed the book. It was well written, well organized and thought provoking. I'm glad I read it.
If you are interesting in the history of ancient Greece, this is a good book to read.
A War Like No Other: Victor Davis Hanson At His Very Best
Customer Rating:
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 examination of the events. Dr. Hanson provides a fresh view in his "A War Like No Other" adopting a thematic approach that delves into the "human predicament" of the Greeks who were caught up in the events of the twenty-eight year struggle. This is one of those books a reader has to sort of "crawl into": what was Athens like during the plague; to suffer through a siege; fight in a hoplite battle and more? Victor Davis Hanson provides a psychological and sociological framework for the chronological events to take shape which allows for a deeper understanding of the people and their struggle. He gives the war both a context and a texture that gives life to the events. "A War Like No Other" is a must for historians and classicists but it can also be a fruitful read for anyone who wants to further understand the ancient culture that is the father of our own.
Read before Thucydides' Peloponesian War
Customer Rating:
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 raids by the Athenian naval forces.
According to the writer much of the blame for the war from the Athenian's side on their democracy. It kept them fighting long after they should have stopped. It also feels that this democracy repeatably got rid of its capable leaders.
Finally this war he feels this war accelerated the rise in Greece of huge integrated armies with archers, cavalry, phalanxes etc all led by a general who did not fight but administered from the rear. This with the development of siege warfare and the post war atmosphere opened the way to the new empire builders that war lords like Alexander could fill.
Select button not working? 
