A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War

Hanson 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 Philosophers Including Sophocles And Plato. Hanson's Analysis Of Events And Personalities Raises Many Questions: Were Athens And Sparta Like The United States And The Soviet Union, 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 Brings The Facts To Life And Unearths The Often Surprising Ways In Which The Past Informs The Present.--jacket. Fear : Why Sparta Fought Athens (480-431) -- Fire : The War Against The Land (431-425) -- Disease : The Ravages Of The Plague At Athens (430-426) -- Terror : War In The Shadows (431-421) -- Armor : Hoplite Pitched Battles (424-418) -- Walls : Sieges (431-415) -- Horses : The Disaster At Sicily (415-413) -- Ships : The War At Sea (431-404) -- Climax : Trireme Fighting In The Aegean (411-405) -- Ruin? Winners And Losers (404-403) -- Appendix I : Glossary Of Terms And Places -- Appendix Ii : Key People. Victor Davis Hanson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [381]-386) And Index.