Victor Davis Hanson proposes that the military superiority and global dominance of "The West" has been intimately linked to its faith in democracy and personal liberty. Rather than measuring the worth of the West through its cultural or literary accomplishments, Hanson engages with the much starker record of its successes in combat against non-Western armies. In place of the "Great Books", he studies the "Great Battles" and augments his bold thesis with some evocations of the intensity of warfare.
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'Western countries have tended to defeat their enemies in warfare over the last 2500 years as a result of a sustained cultural heritage that has made them ruthlessly efficient on the battlefield. That is the thesis of this robust and stimulating history, and it is especially relevant after the terrible events of September 11.' Richard Lambert, Financial Times; 'At the heart of this big, combative and gutsy book, there is an argument which is powerful and convincing. Wars are not technical exercises in a vacuum; they are products of human societies, and some of the key values and strengths of those societies will be expressed in their conduct of war.' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph
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149 of 156 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2485 Years of Hindsight,
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This review is from: Why the West Has Won (Paperback)
Not before the Greeks, not before the 480 BC battle of Salamis, the largest naval engagement in history, pitting the Panhellenes under Themistocles against the Achaemenid Persians under their king, Xerxes, did personal freedom clash against totalitarianism. The decisive factors in that and the other "Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power" described in Victor Davis Hanson's 463 pages of gore now seem fundamental to civilization, but they were not always so. Hanson's theme is that some six elements in the Western pursuit of war have led us to our current world view. They are 1) personal freedom, which "does not begin earlier than the Greeks," 2) civic militarism, in which duty calls citizens to the defense of their property and ideals, 3) civilian audit, placing limits on the independence of the military, 4) scientific tradition, bringing both its logic and its technology, 5) decisive shock battle by disciplined infantry, 6) and private property, providing soldiers a vested interest in the outcome. Hanson also refers to these factors in aggregate as "secular rationalism," once the reader becomes familiar with the elements of the term. For most of the "case studies," as he calls them, Hanson uses a uniform analytic framework. First, he provides a summary of what happened, with attention to the specific methodology of bloodletting. Second, he presents an explanation (he uses the term "exegesis") of how the victor had developed the specific military superiority described in the summary. Then he interprets the historical significance of the victory. As a professor of the classics, Hanson frequently cites historic antecedents, which he refers to as "the classical paradigm." In addition to Salamis, 480 BC, we get Gaugamela, 331 BC, Cannae, 216 BC, Poitiers, 732 AD, Tenochtitlan, 1521, Lepanto, 1571, Rorke's Drift, 1879, Midway, 1942, and Tet, 1968. The afterward, "Carnage and Culture After September 11, 2001," will comfort any who doubt that we will ultimately defeat global terrorism. Above I stated that most of the case studies follow the same format. The chapter on Vietnam does not. It is more heavily weighted toward exegesis. It is an articulate depiction of why the war tore at America's conscience, and why things turned out the way they did. I have seen nothing better written about America in Vietnam. Overall, this book will give you an appreciation of the copious amounts of blood which have been spilled to create and preserve our Western values. And that bloodletting is far from over.
81 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Carnage, Culture, and the Western Military Ethos,
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This review is from: Why the West Has Won (Paperback)
My first encounter with Victor Davis Hanson came between the covers of "The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece," in which he described the horrific, bloody scrimmage that was hoplite combat. At the conclusion of the book he drew some far reaching conclusions (with which I did not agree) about the Western way of war. Since the publication of that book, Hanson's thesis has been borne out by Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
This book, which is a retitled version of "Carnage and Culture" elaborates the thesis set forth in "The Western Way of War" with a study of nine epic confrontations which should be familiar to any student of military history. Indeed, the only unfamiliar name was "Poitiers," which I at first mistook for the famous English victory from the Hundred Years War. Not far into the chapter, it was revealed that Hanson was talking about the Battle of Tours. Ironically, every victory recounted save one came within a hairbreadth of disaster. The Greeks at Salamis nearly debated themselves into anarchy. Parmenio was almost overwhelmed at Gaugamela. Had Charles Martel's shield wall lost cohesion against the murderous onslaught of the Saracens, the Franks would have suffered the fate of the Housecarls at Hastings and a Mosque might well now stand on the site of Notre Dame Cathedral. Cortez came within an inch of annihilation at Tenochtitlan. The admirals at Lepanto emulated the Greek bickering before Salamis. If the 4,000 warriors of the three Zulu impis had had the strength to mount one more charge, the 100 defenders of Rorke's Drift would almost certainly have been overwhelmed. That the outgunned, outmanned, outperformed American forces prevailed at Midway is attributable as much to luck as to anything else. Only the American victory during the Tet Offensive was never seriously in doubt. Hanson looks at each of the first seven victories and isolates the one aspect of Western Military Ethos (WME) that helped snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. He also looks at the horrific Roman debacle at Cannae and discusses the one aspect of WME that helped Rome overcome that defeat. Finally he looks at Tet and discusses the aspect of WME that turned tactical victory into short range strategic defeat. Long range it planted the seeds for success in Desert Storm and Afghanistan and the initial success in Iraq II. Reading the chapter on Tet, I could not help but see the potential for a Tet Redivivus in the pacification of Iraq. Hanson correctly observed that the Vietnam War was not lost in Asia--it was lost in the USA. If Iraq II is lost, it will not be lost in Asia either. The last chapter of this book should be required reading for all Americans.
39 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Rebrand of Carnage and Culture,
By H. S. (Boise, ID) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why the West Has Won (Paperback)
VDH is always impressive and spot on with his books. I was excited to finally receive this one and then realized it was a paperback of Carnage and Culture. Disappointed to say the least. Though C&C is a wonderful and timely book. So, I'll give it 5 stars, but only if you've never had the opportunity to read Carnage and Culture.
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