Ripples of BattleThe effects of war refuse to remain local: they persist through the centuries, sometimes in unlikely ways far removed from the military arena. In Ripples of Battle, the acclaimed historian Victor Davis Hanson weaves wide-ranging military and cultural history with his unparalleled gift for battle narrative as he illuminates the centrality of war in the human experience. The Athenian defeat at Delium in 424 BC brought tactical innovations to infantry fighting; it also assured the influence of the philosophy of Socrates, who fought well in the battle. Nearly twenty-three hundred years later, the carnage at Shiloh and the death of the brilliant Southern strategist Albert Sidney Johnson inspired a sense of fateful tragedy that would endure and stymie Southern culture for decades. The Northern victory would also bolster the reputation of William Tecumseh Sherman, and inspire Lew Wallace to pen the classic Ben Hur. And, perhaps most resonant for our time, the agony of Okinawa spurred the Japanese toward state-sanctioned suicide missions, a tactic so uncompromising and subversive, it haunts our view of non-Western combatants to this day. |
Contents
Okinawa April 1July 2 1945 | 19 |
Shilohs Ghosts April 67 1862 | 71 |
The Myth of the Lost Opportunity | 94 |
BenHur | 118 |
The Klansman | 143 |
Postmortem | 166 |
The Battle | 172 |
Euripides and the Rotting Dead | 185 |
Thespian Tragedies | 192 |
The Faces of Delium | 199 |
Socrates Slain? | 213 |
Beauty from the Dead | 228 |
What Was Delium? | 238 |
The Imprint of Battle | 244 |
Acknowledgments | 259 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Alcibiades American appear army assault Athenian Athens attack battle battle of Delium battlefield better Boeotian bombing century changed charge Civil civilians command Confederate continued critical dead death decades defeat defense Delium division earlier efforts enemy entire fact fighting final fire fleet followed forces Forrest fought given Grant Greek ground helped hoplites hundred idea immediate island Japanese Johnston kamikazes killed Klan Landing later least less lives losses lost Marine miles military million months moral nature nearly never Northern officers Okinawa once ordered past perhaps Persian planes Plato political rear remained reported River seemed sense Sherman Shiloh ships side Socrates soldiers South Southern success suicide tactics Tennessee Theban Thespians thousands troops turned Union United veterans victory Wallace Wallace's Western wing wounded wrote York