A War Like No Other by Victor Davis Hanson

I've needed to read another account of the Peloponnesian War to refresh myself, even though I'm sure I will re-read Thucydides' legendary account before long as well.  I've learned not to rely solely on ancient accounts, and so I turned to this release by Victor Davis Hanson.

Books specifically on war typically are not my favorites, but Hanson's approach I find refreshing.  Rather than the typical chronological account of battles, he follows a roughly chronological account with each chapter focusing on a theme.

The themes include Disease (focusing on the plague in Athens in the early year of the war), Walls (the siege at Plataea), Horses (the Athenian lack of horses for their attack on Syracuse) and on and on.

The result is a more human account of the real issues of war, both on the personal level and on the level of the political and military leaderships.

Hanson emphasizes the guerilla nature of the war, which favored siege, deception, small skirmishes, ravishing of crops and other tactics rather than set battle by phalanxes of hoplite soldiers.

He points out that the War involves a new generation of Athenian leaders (Alcibiades, Cleon and others) who fall far short of previous generations in their abilities, morals and heroism.  How different the course of the 27 year war if Pericles had not died in the plague within the first two years?

Halfway through the book just now, I'm gaining a far different perspective on the war than I had previously.