Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power

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