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Victor Davis Hanson
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Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Revised edition (Biblioteca Di Studi Antichi) Kindle Edition

by Victor Davis Hanson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 15 ratings
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The ancient Greeks were for the most part a rural, not an urban, society. And for much of the Classical period, war was more common than peace. Almost all accounts of ancient history assume that farming and fighting were critical events in the lives of the citizenry. Yet never before have we had a comprehensive modern study of the relationship between agriculture and warfare in the Greek world. In this completely revised edition of Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Victor Davis Hanson provides a systematic review of Greek agriculture and warfare and describes the relationship between these two important aspects of life in ancient communities. With careful attention to agronomic as well as military details, this well-written, thoroughly researched study reveals the remarkable resilience of those farmland communities.

In the past, scholars have assumed that the agricultural infrastructure of ancient society was often ruined by attack, as, for example, Athens was relegated to poverty in the aftermath of the Persian and later Peloponnesian invasions. Hanson's study shows, however, that in reality attacks on agriculture rarely resulted in famines or permanent agrarian depression. Trees and vines are hard to destroy, and grainfields are only briefly vulnerable to torching. In addition, ancient armies were rather inefficient systematic ravagers and instead used other tactics, such as occupying their enemies' farms to incite infantry battle. Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece suggests that for all ancient societies, rural depression and desolation came about from more subtle phenomena—taxes, changes in political and social structure, and new cultural values—rather than from destructive warfare.
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  1. Print length
    261 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    University of California Press
  5. Publication date
    October 20, 1998
  6. File size
    1050 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"The book is excellent. . . . Hanson's literary style is clean and lucid, a delight to read."--Walter Donlan, University of California, Irvine

"Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece presents a closely argued and thoroughly supported critique of an entire tendency in classical scholarship to think uncritically about agriculture. . . . Hanson's success in this results in an admirably short work that is full of interest, not just for classical scholars but also for military, agriculture, and environmental historians."--Colin Duncan, Queen's University, Ontario

From the Back Cover

"The book is excellent. . . . Hanson's literary style is clean and lucid, a delight to read."―Walter Donlan, University of California, Irvine

"Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece presents a closely argued and thoroughly supported critique of an entire tendency in classical scholarship to think uncritically about agriculture. . . . Hanson's success in this results in an admirably short work that is full of interest, not just for classical scholars but also for military, agriculture, and environmental historians."―Colin Duncan, Queen's University, Ontario

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0073TBJDS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; 1st edition (October 20, 1998)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 20, 1998
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1050 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 261 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0520210255
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

About the author

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Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson

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Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history and classics at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of over two dozen books, including The Second World Wars, The Dying Citizen, and The End of Everything. He lives in Selma, California.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
15 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Marie Sharon
5.0 out of 5 stars Looking at war sideways
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2011
Verified Purchase
This monograph covers one of those little considered subjects that, in fact, has a great deal to do with the waging of war, particularly war in ancient times. Raised on a farm, Hanson has a lot to offer on this subject. Not only does he understand just how hardy orchards, vineyards, and grain fields can be, he ran his own research projects, cutting down fruit trees, pulling up the stumps, even burning out the stumps only to have new shoots appear the following year. Vineyards don't burn like they did in "A Walk in the Clouds." Grain fields are susceptible to burning only within a small window of time. Green grain doesn't burn easily. And time--the time it takes to do these things is not conducive to ravaging and rampaging across the land. It's hard, time-consuming work.

I learned so much in this monograph. In fact, I would recommend any work by Hanson. He's direct and pulls things together so that his histories are strong and easy to follow. His is not elementary work; it's important work.
5 people found this helpful
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Frederic E. Tacon, Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Crops where sometimes distroyed as stategy and sometime by nacessity.
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2019
Verified Purchase
The invading army had to be feed. They lived off the land. This alone caused damage and depletion of crops. Whether the invader destroyed crops as a strategy or necessity the invaded were deprived of their food supply to some extent. I read this book because of my interest in Victor Davis Hanson. This was his first book written for his PHD. I have also read Mexifornia and plan to read the remainder in chronological order.
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C. E. R. Mendonça
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book, uses concrete experience to make a fine point.
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2001
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The author uses his concrete experience as a farmer in the San Fernando Valley to develop a fine point about the "low intensity" character of Classical Greek warfare. He argues that, the Greek city-states waging warfare through part-time citzen militias, the war strategy of all Greek polities centered on the idea of forcing a pitched battle in order not to keep citzens away too long for harvesting at home. The means used to force such a battle being to disturb the enemy's harvest, which, however, given the low technology tools avaliable and the resilience of the crop-species - specially olive trees - could never amount to permanent damage. Therefore the general low-intensity, boarding game character of much of Classical Greek military history. A fine argued, important book, specially for the firm grasp of the concrete realities at play.
9 people found this helpful
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Murray Eiland
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017
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This covers a critical aspect of ancient history in a new way. It is also excellently written!
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chazz@empirenet.com
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent contribution to understanding Classical Greece
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 1999
Warfare and Agriculture is a scholarly, yet very readable, analysis of the effects of war on agriculture and rural life in classical Greece. Drawing heavily on contemporary sources, Hanson clearly illustrates the inextricable connection between war and agriculture in the Greek world. With the notable exception of Sparta, Greek infantrymen typically were farmers themselves who were often torn between their role as ravagers of agriculture in enemy territory, and the need to tend to their own crops.
Hanson's main premise is that many previous analyses of agricultural devastation in classical Greece have overstated the severity of its effects. He points out the ravaging was usually a means to incite battle with enemy infantry rather than an end in itself, and argues convincingly that the ravaging often associated with the seasonal cycle of warfare, while certainly contributing to hardship among the invaded population, was far from complete and had relatively short-term effects. Drawing on his first-hand experience as a farmer, Hanson illustrates some of the practical difficulties with destroying the olive trees, vines, and grains that formed the staples of Greek agriculture. In the course of his analysis, he brings to life the Greek countryside and its relationship to the urban center of the polis.
Although Warfare and Agriculture will be of interest to any reader interested in the classical world, it is probably of greatest interest to readers with some familiarity with Greek history. The extensive references to contemporary and modern sources, including many recent sources cited in the Updated Commentary to this revised edition, guide the interested reader to a wealth of additional information on the subject.
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