Paying the dues and reading about infantry warfare

[chronarchy]

Crap: I have to re-buy the Pals book now. He added a theorist.

Eight Theories on Religion

What used to be "Seven Theories on Religion" is now "Eight Theories on Religion". Personally, I liked the flow to the title better when there were only seven theorists, but whatever, right? I found out about the change when updating my Amazon.com wishlist

Comments

[zylch]

A War Like No Other (also by Hanson) is an excellent book on the Peloponessian War, and I think a much better approach than the standard rehashing of Thucydides. It's organized by different aspects of warfare (Walls, Armor, Horses, etc), but still manages to communicate a narrative of the war as a whole.

[chronarchy]

*nods* I gained a real deep appreciation for his work after hearing him speak, and hearing that he has a fondness for dressing up himself and his grad students in armour and trying out the tactics for himself using passages from Thucydides and Herodotus as guides.

[tesinth]

The thing about Hanson's book (and others like it) is that it does not focus on strategy or tactics, but on what the individual experienced: why he fought, how tactics and strategy influenced the experience of battle, and the way these things focused themselves directly into theory of war that the west embraced and still holds as the highest form of combat.

Ah, very hermeneutical in an Wachian sorta way... I've always liked this line of investigation, and although many journalists have attempted to do this with the current wars, something always seems to be off.

On a lighter note, we should certainly limit the allowable theories of religion in a single volume, enough is enough! Although I am intregued by the idea of an author trying to come up with another theory just so she can publish an updated book. :)

[chronarchy]

Max Weber appears to be the new theory in this book. I have to say, including him? Crazy.

And I think you'd like this particular book. If you'd like to borrow it, you can.

I have a feeling that the reason that journalists can't get at this sort of thing is because they're still going at it from the "what do viewers want to think war looks like" angle, rather than the "this is what war is like" angle.

[ceolnamara]

Fascinating stuff, isn't it. I find that the course I most enjoy this term is 'A History of Strategic Thought' and my favorite book to work with is Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. That was the best resource I had when writing my Schleiffen Plan essay (which you are welcome to see if you want - it's not my best writing, but I support my thesis statement).

[lillassea]

the battle of Delium, one of the most horrific battles in history and the first recorded example of fratricide in battle. I still shudder thinking about his description of the Athenian realization that they were killing each other.

That's dreadful.