Rating: 
Summary: Well researched and informative
Review: I personally liked Victor Hanson's narrative of Okinawa, Shiloh and Delium. Not an avid war reader, I enjoyed his insight and twists to history of these battles. It was alittle long with the battle of Delium but otherwise well researched. The book made me reflect on how all wars begin with hate and through it all society evolves to a new level while not learning from its past. The result of war translates in may ways to future generations in may unseen ways. Thanks to Victor for a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Chaos THeory In Effect
Review: I thought Victor Hanson's theory is interesting and in a way profound. In essence, the author proposes that everyone knows about the major battles, and major battles have impact since they usually impact the outcome a war, but they minor battles can create ripples in history that have an effect on future events that may be more signficant than the battles everyone knows about.The author selects the Battle of Okinawa, The Battle of Shiloh, and the Battle of Delium. The ripple effects are derived from the impact these battles had on the participants. To most people, these battles are minor and obscure. Okinawa shouldn't be, but was overshadowed by other events. The key point of Okinawa (aside from the author's personal interest, a relative died there) was western culture's reaction to suicide bombings that Japanese used in the battle and the significance of the desire to fight to the last regardless of the outcome. The Japanese were fighting to extract casualties and for strategic advantage. The hope was to deter the imminent invasion of the home islands. The ripple here is the parallel of what we might do faced with Islamic extremists. In WWII, we used the A-Bomb on Japan, and Afganistan we are using Daisy Cutters. In Shiloh, which probably the author's strongest argument, the battle impacted the pyschology of the south (The Lost Opportunity), the key focus of two generals ideas about prosecuting the war (Sherman and Grant), and how in a few moments careers are made and broken (Lew Wallace). All of these had impact far beyond the battle, the war, and the century. Victor Hanson is an excellent writer and brings and interesting perspective to the subject. This is a very good book and well worth reading, it will make you think. (Chaos theory which an example is the fluttering of a butterfly in China impacts the weather in North America.)
Rating:
Summary: Chaos THeory In Effect
Review: I thought Victor Hanson's theory is interesting and in a way profound. In essence, the author proposes that everyone knows about the major battles, and major battles have impact since they usually impact the outcome a war, but they minor battles can create ripples in history that have an effect on future events that may be more signficant than the battles everyone knows about. The author selects the Battle of Okinawa, The Battle of Shiloh, and the Battle of Delium. The ripple effects are derived from the impact these battles had on the participants. To most people, these battles are minor and obscure. Okinawa shouldn't be, but was overshadowed by other events. The key point of Okinawa (aside from the author's personal interest, a relative died there) was western culture's reaction to suicide bombings that Japanese used in the battle and the significance of the desire to fight to the last regardless of the outcome. The Japanese were fighting to extract casualties and for strategic advantage. The hope was to deter the imminent invasion of the home islands. The ripple here is the parallel of what we might do faced with Islamic extremists. In WWII, we used the A-Bomb on Japan, and Afganistan we are using Daisy Cutters. In Shiloh, which probably the author's strongest argument, the battle impacted the pyschology of the south (The Lost Opportunity), the key focus of two generals ideas about prosecuting the war (Sherman and Grant), and how in a few moments careers are made and broken (Lew Wallace). All of these had impact far beyond the battle, the war, and the century. Victor Hanson is an excellent writer and brings and interesting perspective to the subject. This is a very good book and well worth reading, it will make you think. (Chaos theory which an example is the fluttering of a butterfly in China impacts the weather in North America.)
Rating:
Summary: As always, Hanson educates, entertains, and provokes
Review: I would like to clarify a mistake from two review previous. Lew Wallace, Union soldier from Indiana, wrote Ben-Hur, not a founding member of the KKK! How offensive...please be more careful.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting read, but not profound.
Review: I'm a great fan of VDH - his academic career, his style of writing, his outspokenness on current geopolitical events, and his political outlook. That carries this book for me, but probably not in the way he had intended. With this one VDH wants "to show that while all battles are not equivalent in their effects upon civilization, they do share at least this common truth: there will be some fundamental and important consequences beyond other more normal occurrences...Battles really are the wildfires of history, out of which the survivors float like embers and then land to burn far beyond the original conflagration. To teach us those important lessons we must go back through the past to see precisely how such calamities affected now lost worlds -- and yet still influence us today." (16) To illustrate his point, VDH then walks us through three examples: Okinawa (1945), Shiloh (1862) and Delium (424 BC). It is no revelation that battles -- all battles -- have some effect on the future, rather through premature deaths, the ensuing revectoring of cultural trends and relationships, or changes in the mindsets of survivors, as well as in other ways that may not become apparent until long after the battle. It also goes without saying that some battles will have a more profound impact than others. To this extent Ripples brings nothing to the table, not even in the choice of battles that VDH describes. They were important, to be sure, but were not unique in the degree of impact on humanity. The book's strength actually is in VDH's storytelling and conclusions. He doesn't describe each battle in detail; rather, he describes some of the more important ripples emanating from each. For revisionists that decry the use of the atomic bomb on Imperial Japan in 1945, VDH shows that Okinawa, and the use of suicide attacks in general, presaged to Allied war planners the degree of death that awaited an amphibious invasion of the home islands and the ensuing campaign to defeat the Japanese. He then ascribes these lessons, learned by company and field grade officers in World War II that later rose to high levels of command and planning, as the basis for our strategic and operational thinking during the Korean War years and the war in Vietnam. (59) He even links Japanese suicide attacks to modern Islamist and Palestinian tactics. (38) There is merit to his reasoning, but conclusiveness of this connecting thread awaits more thorough research. And so it goes with Shiloh and Delium. Shiloh was the second chance needed by General's Grant and Sherman that put them on the road to senior Union commands and a quicker Confederate defeat. (89) VDH also describes the battle's impact on national politics and future Presidential administrations. As for Delium, it set the tone for Western tactical thought (235) and even for the strategy of preemptive attack. (179) There is more to his telling of each of these battles -- notable participants, circumstances, ripples, and so forth -- but this illustrates how he supports his thesis. In his last chapter VDH delves into the question of what makes some battles more lastingly important to subsequent human affairs than others. He ascribes this to tactics, numbers, the dead, location, timing, political aftershocks, and luminaries, all of which "affect the ripples of a given battle." (248). To this he adds the presence of historians or, more specifically, historical remembrance. (250) It is the latter that lets the ripples pass, visibly at least, down through history, affecting later generations in ways that may seem all out of proportion to the circumstances of any given battle. In the end VDH's book is fascinating, but certainly is not as profound as some of his previous works. His storytelling more than his thesis is what brings me to favor him with four stars.
Rating:
Summary: Handsomely Done
Review: If you enjoyed "Carnage And Culture," I am sure you will also like "Ripples Of Battle." Mr. Hanson is an academic who knows how to write clearly, and in a style which can best be described as conversational: you feel as though you are in his classroom (a small classroom, not a lecture hall) and he's just chatting with you. Whether he's writing about the movements of hoplites and cavalry at the Battle of Delium, the plays of Euripides, Socratic philosophy, Japanese kamikaze pilots, or the miraculous feats of Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Battle of Shiloh, it is all explained so that the layperson can understand it (without being "dumbed down") and it is all fascinating. Mr. Hanson is a writer who has more ideas in one chapter than most authors have in an entire book. If you think I'm just blowing smoke, consider what's under discussion in the chapter on the Battle of Delium, which took place in Greece in 424 B.C. : there is the background to the battle (why it was fought); the strategy and tactics of the battle itself; Greek religious beliefs ( the victorious Boeotians wouldn't let the Athenians gather up their dead from the battlefield, so they could be buried quickly - before the bodies started to decay. This was to retaliate for the fact that the Athenians, after the battle, occupied a Boeotian temple); how the battle changed the way future battles were fought (the Boeotians introduced the concept of holding back a "strategic reserve," to be brought into the battle at the proper moment. They also coordinated cavalry with infantry and arranged their hoplites in deepened columns); the importance to the history of Western philosophy that Socrates (the Greeks saw no contradiction in combining a life of martial action with a life of contemplation) survived the battle. These are just a few of the things that are discussed - so you can see that the book is not just about the nuts-and-bolts of the battles. Personally, I found this one chapter "worth the price of admission." However, the other chapters are equally good. For example, we learn how the Battle of Shiloh rehabilitated the career of General Sherman (who, only a few months before, had been referred to as "crazy"); forged the friendship/partnership between Sherman and Grant; made a popular hero of Confederate officer Nathan Bedford Forrest (who single-handedly rode into a brigade of Sherman's troops, took a point-blank bullet in the back, near his spine, yet managed to lift a Union soldier off the ground and plop him behind him on his horse to use as a "human shield" while Forrest galloped back to the Confederate position. Forrest was back in action two months later. It is also noteworthy that after the war, for a short while, Forrest was the head of the newly formed Ku Klux Klan); and, in a bizarre twist of history, resulted in the writing of the novel "Ben-Hur" (which, by 1936, had earned the greatest amount of money of any novel in American history) - but, I don't want to give THAT story away! "Ripples Of Battle" contains so many different threads and ideas that there really is something here for everyone - even the serious student of military history, who may know these battles inside-out, will find much to think about. Is this book perfect? Of course not. Mr. Hanson has lots of opinions, and some of them (depending upon which side of the fence you are standing on) are bound to rub you the wrong way. For example, in the chapter on Shiloh, the author writes that Sherman was so appalled by the carnage that he thought there must have been a better way of fighting the war - namely, carry it to the civilians - which led to the March To The Sea. Fair enough, so far. But I didn't agree with Mr. Hanson's assertion that Sherman's March caused "ripples" which affected the way later wars were fought. Frankly, I don't see the evidence, and the author is very lax in supplying any. I also didn't agree (and many Southerners won't, either) with Mr. Hanson's claim that Sherman left the "little man" alone - that on his March through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina his troops specifically targeted only the homes and farms of the rich people who supported secession. If Mr. Hanson really holds this view, I find it amazing. He is too good a military historian to be unaware of what happens when troops (especially unopposed troops) are unleashed on the countryside and are told to "live off the land." The idea of Sherman's March was to destroy the Southern infrastructure and to break the morale of the general population - period. Still, this book is full of so many good things that even the occasional slip-up cannot cause me to lower my opinion of the whole. This is a book that is well-worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: All conservatives should read Hanson
Review: It is very politically incorrect to say this, but Hanson is THE author that all conservatives should be reading today. He shows why the West is in the lead and will continue to be so long as it retains its values.
Rating:
Summary: the best writer in history
Review: mr. hanson is by far the very best in writing about either current affairs/history and many times together, this book is one of those who take past history(shiloh) and shows how it has meaning in ou world. i wish that our political leaders read this authors works,before deciding on their actions.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful Discussion
Review: The thesis of the book is that some battles have more than just geographical significance. The 'story' is actually about the participants as much or more than the battle. The extensive pre- and post- background given these major players is woven into a provacative thesis on how the effect of these three battles shaped the thoughts/philosophies of the major actors, and subsequently the world. It is beyond me to rule on the claim these are the only three world shaping battles ... but the author certainly does a credible job in his argument.
Rating:
Summary: Controversial - but always well worth reading
Review: This author is sure controversial, but he is always worth reading - perhaps the most intelligent of the neoconservative authors writing today. On this kind of issue, his chosen field of ancient history, he is in fact right - which is why I give him five stars. The Greeks may not have been a democracy in the sense that we understand that word, inherited from them of course, today, but they were fighting for what they believed in, unlike the might imperial armies of Persia, their main enemy. So well worth reading. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003 - a book that quotes Hanson more than once)
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