Why the West has Won

(Paperback, Main)

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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.

Reviews

'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

Author Bio

Victor Davis Hanson was born in 1953 and received his PhD from Stanford University. He is currently Professor of Classics at California State University, Fresno. His popular books on classical warfare include The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny, The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization and Fields Without Dreams: Defending Agrarian Idea. He lives in Selma, California.