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Anchor (2002), 544 p.
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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. 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jcbrunner
Hanson's domain is Greek warfare. Whenever he strays from it, be it modern politics or, in this case, general military history, his bias limits the quality of his research. He certainly can write and his books are pleasant reads. But his methodology (and thus his results) are deeply flawed. Such
Historians have identified ocean-going ships and guns as the inventions that catapulted the West to dominance. This parsimony does not suit Hanson who likes to see (and finds) a cultural dominance. His catalogue of Western assets (paradigms of freedom, decisive shock battle, civic militarism, technology, capitalism, individualism, civilian audit and open dissent) and his nine data points (spanning more than 2.000 years) only show his bias. Since when can one speak of Greek and Roman capitalists? How did the galley slaves at Lepanto express their freedom of speech?
For each and every example he lists, there exists a counter example -- both for supposed Westerness and his cases. His beloved Greeks were subjugated by Macedon barbarians. The Late Roman Westerners were crushed by Eastern hordes. Byzantium succumbed to the very civilized Ottoman Empire. The Japanese defeated the Russians in 1905. The Vietnamese whipped the French and the USA. When his thesis does not hold, Hanson retreats to the formulation that defeat only happened at the fringes of Western empires. What about the barbarians in Rome? The muslims in Spain? The Ottomans in Hungary? They don't suit Hanson's cultural supremacy idea and thus are not discussed. "Git there fastest with the mostest" and "firepower wins" remain better explanations. Read it for intellectual amusement.
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"analysis" by Hanson's political friends has resulted in enough carnage in East and West. Readers beware.Historians have identified ocean-going ships and guns as the inventions that catapulted the West to dominance. This parsimony does not suit Hanson who likes to see (and finds) a cultural dominance. His catalogue of Western assets (paradigms of freedom, decisive shock battle, civic militarism, technology, capitalism, individualism, civilian audit and open dissent) and his nine data points (spanning more than 2.000 years) only show his bias. Since when can one speak of Greek and Roman capitalists? How did the galley slaves at Lepanto express their freedom of speech?
For each and every example he lists, there exists a counter example -- both for supposed Westerness and his cases. His beloved Greeks were subjugated by Macedon barbarians. The Late Roman Westerners were crushed by Eastern hordes. Byzantium succumbed to the very civilized Ottoman Empire. The Japanese defeated the Russians in 1905. The Vietnamese whipped the French and the USA. When his thesis does not hold, Hanson retreats to the formulation that defeat only happened at the fringes of Western empires. What about the barbarians in Rome? The muslims in Spain? The Ottomans in Hungary? They don't suit Hanson's cultural supremacy idea and thus are not discussed. "Git there fastest with the mostest" and "firepower wins" remain better explanations. Read it for intellectual amusement.
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LibraryThing member Miro
Hanson argues that liberal, free societies in the Western tradition have had a powerful military advantage over their autocratic opponents since the days of the ancient Greeks. I think that he's basically right but I'm bothered by the Soviets in WWII - but I suppose that although they were under a
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dictatorship you could still say that they remained in the Western tradition. Show Less
LibraryThing member lewallen
Hanson notes that historically, in general, Western militaries have consistently decisively defeated Eastern militaries. While Western militaries may loose an occasional battle (like Roarke's Drift or Pearl Harbor) against an Eastern foe, they virtually never go on to lose the war except by
In fact, Hanson argues that the idea of decisive battle, the fight-to-the-death, winner-take-all idea of combat, is an invention of the Greeks, the original "Westerners", and that cultures that have failed to adopt this idea, as well as other ideas like free scientific inquiry (which leads to more powerful weapons and technology) and political freedom (which leads to better motivated and more flexible soldiers), have ended up losing in the long run against cultures that have adopted these ideas wholeheartedly. He brings up examples from history that are hard to ignore, where Western militaries have, through personal discipline and initiative, superior technology, and a total-war philosophy, inflicted unsustainable casualties against their enemies, totally out of proportion to the number of soldiers involved on each side. He then shows how and why those cultural traits evolved, and why they have been so successful.
In my opinion, this makes an excellent companion book to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel shows why some groups of humans ended up with signifigant advantages through accidents of biogeography, Carnage and Culture shows how such accidents have specifically affected various cultures and had long-lasting impacts on the modern world.
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voluntary withdrawl, and almost always inflict grossly disproportionate casualties regardless of the situation. About the only time Western militaries stand a risk of being decisively defeated with large numbers of casualties, it's when they're fighting another Western military (witness World Wars One and Two).In fact, Hanson argues that the idea of decisive battle, the fight-to-the-death, winner-take-all idea of combat, is an invention of the Greeks, the original "Westerners", and that cultures that have failed to adopt this idea, as well as other ideas like free scientific inquiry (which leads to more powerful weapons and technology) and political freedom (which leads to better motivated and more flexible soldiers), have ended up losing in the long run against cultures that have adopted these ideas wholeheartedly. He brings up examples from history that are hard to ignore, where Western militaries have, through personal discipline and initiative, superior technology, and a total-war philosophy, inflicted unsustainable casualties against their enemies, totally out of proportion to the number of soldiers involved on each side. He then shows how and why those cultural traits evolved, and why they have been so successful.
In my opinion, this makes an excellent companion book to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel shows why some groups of humans ended up with signifigant advantages through accidents of biogeography, Carnage and Culture shows how such accidents have specifically affected various cultures and had long-lasting impacts on the modern world.
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LibraryThing member 4bonasa
Hanson's postulates, I believe correctly, the Western ideology of freedom, rational thought, and free expression produces a deadly force when mobilized against a foe. Some argue Hanson discounts the Soviet's in WWII, but during the war the Soviet's had no strategic air power, relying on the British
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and American bombers. After the invasion of Europe, the Germans kept their strongest and best forces arrayed against western front, especially the American sector. Show Less
LibraryThing member JayLivernois
Brilliant history; the best military historian writing.
LibraryThing member tuckerresearch
A great history of the Western way of war. A riposte to works like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and an extension of books like David Landes's The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, et cetera. Hanson believes that there is more than just geographical determinism that made the West "win." (The
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British title of the book is Why the West Was Won: Carnage and Culture from Salamis to Vietnam; the American title is Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power.) Each chapter could be pulled from the book and assigned, as Hanson is quite repetitive in places with his thesis. But, this all serves to reinforce it. Basically, the West, since the Greeks, have had some sort of consensual government, a tradition of self-critique, secular rationalism, religious tolerance, individual freedom, free expression, free markets, and individualism. This coupled with wars of annihilation instead of "flower wars" or the like have contributed to Western dominance. Published right before the attacks of 9/11, it was a much ballyhooed (and poopooed) book in the 20-oughts. A classic text of military history that must be dealt with, whether you agree or disagree. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9780385720380
Physical description
544 p.; 5.18 inches
Pages
544