Summary Of Carnage And Culture By Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson is an American classicist, military historian, columnist, and farmer. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare. He has written many books about history that were top sellers of New York Times. He writes Carnage And Culture to put a different perspective on the advancements though history of western civilization.

Hanson is not just a military buff; he is also a cultural historian, who seeks to understand why western battles have been so deadly and so successful. The book has nine major battles in it through 480 B.C -1968 A.D all major battles that had implications for the culture we have today. The first battle he tells us was the Salamis. The main idea of this battle was that Freeman will fight a lot better

If you do come to experience it, you would advise us to fight for it not spears only, but with axes too.” He just shows that a lot of people take their freedom and right for granted and they could disappear at any time, would you fight for them. Another battle was the Cannae, Hannibal Barca was brilliant in his warfare strategies. He had to go against the great Roman empire and he defeated them But the Romans didn’t give up them came back and destroyed Cannae Hanson gives the credit of winning the war to their constitution and their nations state and only got better with every battle and war. Later on, he talks about the battle of midway of June 1942 He says this is the most important battle for America to gain there Western Individualism. He states four critical ways that are this is made possible “the breaking down of Japanese naval codes, the repair of the carrier Yorktown, the nature of the U.S naval command and the behavior of American pilots.” This shows the major reason why American

“This is a stimulating yet ultimately pointless book, held together by an insubstantial skein of imagination and conjecture. Hanson writes in a prose style that oscillates between the sublime and the childish..” . He proves he doesn’t think the book is well written but instead is hold on of ideas and imagination of his own ideas. He does give some credit for the book for the excellent use of cultural lineage. “Hanson's book seeks to explain the cultural lineage that has allowed "the west" (more specifically, the US) to retain its position at the top, at once more "civilized" and more lethally brutal than any of its opponents.” He is telling us that America is at the top for a reason. He explains the reason why they won their wars, because of their technological advancements to make them better. After that, he goes back to making fun of the book. He just undermines everything that Hanson says that it's not correct and that he is making up his own stuff as he pleases that will spice up the written for him and the readers. Richard Gott hates this book deeply He starts with the open sentence with “ Every so often a large historical volume is washed up on the beaches of the eastern Atlantic that hails from the further shore. Soon this jetsam is picked up by some hopeful British publisher who anticipates an upmarket bestseller for the autumn list.” It just proves he thinks a waste of a book and that is shouldn’t be around