A War Like No Other

How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War

By: Victor Davis Hanson

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Victor Davis Hanson has given us painstakingly researched and pathbreaking accounts of wars ranging from classical antiquity to the 21st century. Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict with our most urgent modern concerns to create his most engrossing work to date, A War Like No Other.

Hanson compellingly 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 non-conventional 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 thinkers including Sophocles and Plato.

Hanson's perceptive analysis of events and personalities raises many thought-provoking questions: Were Athens and Sparta like America and Russia, 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 schism between liberals and conservatives? Hanson daringly brings the facts to life and unearths the often surprising ways in which the past informs the present.

©2005 Victor Davis Hanson (P)2019 Tantor

Great if it’s what you’re looking for

I understand some people may think it’s a difficult read (listen) but I came looking for this type of book, factual information about this time period and so to me it was great and exciting and what I was looking for. The Narrator did a great job as well.

Informative

The naration is torture. Good luck. I enjoyed the content but the voice sounds like a computer circa 1994.

Recommended without Reservation

Difficult topic. Not difficult to listen to. You will listen to it more than once.

Outstanding overview with operational details

The only gripe I have is that the narration can be a bit stilted and monotonous. There is an issue with cadence that makes it just slightly awkward.

Aside from that it’s a tremendous resource for understanding the conditions of the Pelopennesian War. A must have for any strategist or historian.

Shockingly relevant & Victor's best, among gems.

The best work from the foremost military historian of our times, and painfully relevant to the struggles of the modern day. Nihil sub sole novum.

Needs maps.

When are they going to provide maps? Seems so simple. It would help a whole lot.

Outstanding!

I own both the book and audio book. A book like no other about a war like no other.

History repeats itself.

The only difference is that now the generals stay safely in the rear. The rest of the soldiers are cannon fodder at the front.

*

This book gives the reader a great awareness of the warfare of the time. As you read on you get an image of the fighting that would take place in the battles through descriptive text that pulls from all the great primary sources on the subject and summarizes them with clarity and an accurate perspective.

I was pleasantly suprised.

For Those Who Want Deeper Understanding

Most schools these days skim over the Peloponnesian War, if they cover it at all. For example, they tend to opine that the hoplites were almost unbeatable on the battlefield, given their armor and discipline. With topnotch research, Hanson disabuses the reader of this and other shallow notions of ancient Greek warfare.