Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by bookaneer
Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power by Victor Davis Hanson
1.0
I've been warned about this book by my buddies at the NFBC group. After reading some reviews, I became wary but still determined to read it After all, this is the oldest book I have unread in my shelf and I got it for just $3.17 from a sale.
I want that $3.17 back now, please.
The author is not just racist and xenophobic, but worse, his writing is messy and repetitive.
This is NOT a book about battle history that I thought it was. Sure there are several historical battles like Salamis, Cannae, Midway, Tenochtitlan and so on, but I only got so little useful information about the battles. The author spent the majority of the book pointing out that the victories the Western armies achieved were because the Western values were better, and that the Eastern armies were simply decrepit, corrupt, and uncivilized. Ad nauseam.
For example, he argued for over than 50 pages that freedom and democracy are the main cause of the Greeks' victory at the Salamis and barely paid any attention (only a few paragraph) to the tactical and strategic acumen of the commanders as well as the choice of battle site that clearly advantaged the Greeks. Now, he is welcome of course for his thesis, but the way it was written was too repetitive and thus tiring.
Well, the author just lauded Trump as "a tragic hero" and described global warming as an “apparition” in his latest book so I should have known better. Nevertheless, his politics aside, the jumbled writing style and the lack of so-called titular "landmark battle" accounts ruined the book for me.
I want that $3.17 back now, please.
The author is not just racist and xenophobic, but worse, his writing is messy and repetitive.
This is NOT a book about battle history that I thought it was. Sure there are several historical battles like Salamis, Cannae, Midway, Tenochtitlan and so on, but I only got so little useful information about the battles. The author spent the majority of the book pointing out that the victories the Western armies achieved were because the Western values were better, and that the Eastern armies were simply decrepit, corrupt, and uncivilized. Ad nauseam.
For example, he argued for over than 50 pages that freedom and democracy are the main cause of the Greeks' victory at the Salamis and barely paid any attention (only a few paragraph) to the tactical and strategic acumen of the commanders as well as the choice of battle site that clearly advantaged the Greeks. Now, he is welcome of course for his thesis, but the way it was written was too repetitive and thus tiring.
Well, the author just lauded Trump as "a tragic hero" and described global warming as an “apparition” in his latest book so I should have known better. Nevertheless, his politics aside, the jumbled writing style and the lack of so-called titular "landmark battle" accounts ruined the book for me.