Hannibal and Me

What History’s Greatest Military Strategist Can Teach Us About Success and Failure

By: Andreas Kluth

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

The lives of Hannibal and his Roman enemies are the stuff of legend. But these classic stories contain truths with relevance today: The seeds of our successes lie in our failures, and within our successes are the kernels of our failure. Knowing how to recognize these paradoxes will help us to be more effective at work, at school, at home, and with others.

A big new idea book that springs from ancient history, Hannibal and Me explores these exciting ideas by analyzing the experiences of Hannibal and others who made their mark on history. By turns a riveting adventure tale, a compelling human drama, and an insightful guide to understanding behavior, this is essential listening for successful people and for those who seek to transform misfortune into success.

©2011 Andreas Kluth (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Realistic and timely, Kluth's book uses historic truths to move us past the frequent traps of success and failure to mold practical, productive lives." ( Publishers Weekly)

Entertaining while making you think

I loved the rich historical stories and the many mini biographies from different eras. He looks past the individual accomplishment or defeat to judge success or failure of a person over a lifetime. Like statistics he drew his teachings from these stories while someone else could draw other conclusions. Overall highly recommended audio that looks at your own and famous peoples accomplishments in a different light. Entertaining while making you think.

entertaining and thought provoking.

As a HS history and psychology teacher this was an incredible combination that had great tie into current beliefs and trends.

Greatest practical history book

This book takes timeless classic historical takes of Hannibal and Scipio along with biographical takes of dozens of other great leaders and distills their stories into concise, practical guides to start living a better and more interesting life today. Most read, and reread every year or so. This is a hidden gem

Good book, with solid wisdom

The author presents several examples throughout history of mindset and strategy. Good read. Give it a go.

Hannibal can teach us a lot!

History should repeat itself! There is much to learn from all of our ancestors that have gone before.

Awesome

Honestly the value in this book is immense. I can honestly say that this book can save someone’s life which would have otherwise been wasted. Recommend strongly!

Interesting book

I enjoyed the book very much. The way Kluth combines the life of Hannibal and other historical figures is fascinating. Overall a good read and a philosophical book worth the time.

amazing story, worth rehearing

If you could sum up Hannibal and Me in three words, what would they be?

inspired my thinking

What did you like best about this story?

history became relevant, alive, the story telling was magnificent. The narrator was a joy to listen to.

What did you learn from Hannibal and Me that you would use in your daily life?

I think about people that I interact with, and try to understand their "history" . I was inspired to read ( or audio ) more biographies to expand my own knowledge.

Any additional comments?

I have recommended this title to many of my friends. I work out ( hiking and outdoor cardio ) while listening to audiobooks, and with this story, I was compelled to work out longer as I didn't want my sessions to end. I will again listen to this book after I have read about Eleanor Roosevelt. I had already read all of Amy Tan's books, so I was familiar with her as an author, but enjoyed learning more about her as a child. I also love ancient history, so of course, the story of Hannibal was great.

Good. Very worthwhile.

It caused me to think about events in my own life and my subsequent actions. It’s an uplifting book. It reminds me of the Malcolm Gladwell books. If you like those, I think you’ll like this.

The author talks about many famous people - their triumphs, tragedies, successes, failures. What makes this book special is seeing what these people did “after” their success or failure, what happened and why. Some reacted poorly to success resulting in problems or tragedy. Some made changes in their lives after a failure which led to great success. I enjoyed these stories.

The author talks about psychological concepts: the stages of grief when there is a loss (or failure) and a little about Maslow’s self actualization. He talks about John Paul Sartre’s statement “Hell is other people” - the schoolyard bully, office politics, and any mediocre man or woman who sees others succeed and hates them for it. Hannibal and Scipio (the Roman commander) had great success but later suffered due to fellow citizens who were jealous and conspired against them.

The Hannibal story is fascinating. He was outnumbered. He was facing the Romans on a plain which is the way the Romans liked to fight. Yet Hannibal was able to surround the Romans so that most of the Romans were inside their own circle and couldn’t get to the perimeter to fight. Hannibal won. I loved what Scipio did in a later battle - how he defended against Hannibal’s attacking war elephants.

Hannibal was successful in battles, but he (Carthage) lost the war with the Romans - 13 years later. The author shows how tactics win battles, but strategies win wars. Ask whether you want to annihilate the enemy, or get concessions and live in harmony afterwards. The latter means allowing the enemy dignity.

It was fascinating how the Romans used strategy. Those who engaged in battle with Hannibal lost. Fabius (a Roman leader) was successful because he would not fight Hannibal. He was an example of how doing nothing can be the best course of action.

The author talked about early vs. late achievers. Picasso and Einstein were early achievers. Picasso’s later works were never as famous as his early works and sold for less. After Einstein’s early success, he had no more success in his field because he lost his youthful imagination and was close minded. He refused to accept the idea of randomness and chaos which is the basis for quantum something. Cezanne, Harry Truman, and Carl Jung were examples of later-in-life achievers.

Other stories include Eleanor Roosevelt, Ludwig Erhard (former head or W. Germany), Shackleton (Antartica explorer), Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark expedition), Amy Tan (novelist), Morihei Ueshiba (founded the Japanese martial art of aikido), the Chinese President Liu Shaoqi and his wife, Tiger Woods, Cleopatra, Lance Armstrong, Eliot Spitzer, and Steve Jobs.

The narrator Sean Runette was good.

Genre: psychology and history, nonfiction

Enjoyed it

Any additional comments?

Really good book about Hannibal's campaign against Rome and how it can apply to our everyday life (in regards to your successes and failures). This isn't an in-depth biography on Hannibal Barca but it does give you more than the basics about Hannibal's campaigns (i.e. it does a good job on introducing you to Hannibal). The author also incorporates the interplay between Hannibal, Scipio, and Fabius, in addition to revealing the stories of other historical people (not related to this theater) and how they dealt with their successes and failures.