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Title: Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece (Biblioteca Di Studi Antichi, 40) by Victor Davis Hanson ISBN: 0-520-21596-6 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: November, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Superb book, uses concrete experience to make a fine point.
Comment: The author uses his concrete experience as a farmer in the San Fernando Valley to develop a fine point about the "low intensity" character of Classical Greek warfare. He argues that, the Greek city-states waging warfare through part-time citzen militias, the war strategy of all Greek polities centered on the idea of forcing a pitched battle in order not to keep citzens away too long for harvesting at home. The means used to force such a battle being to disturb the enemy's harvest, which, however, given the low technology tools avaliable and the resilience of the crop-species - specially olive trees - could never amount to permanent damage. Therefore the general low-intensity, boarding game character of much of Classical Greek military history. A fine argued, important book, specially for the firm grasp of the concrete realities at play.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent contribution to understanding Classical Greece
Comment: Warfare and Agriculture is a scholarly, yet very readable, analysis of the effects of war on agriculture and rural life in classical Greece. Drawing heavily on contemporary sources, Hanson clearly illustrates the inextricable connection between war and agriculture in the Greek world. With the notable exception of Sparta, Greek infantrymen typically were farmers themselves who were often torn between their role as ravagers of agriculture in enemy territory, and the need to tend to their own crops.
Hanson's main premise is that many previous analyses of agricultural devastation in classical Greece have overstated the severity of its effects. He points out the ravaging was usually a means to incite battle with enemy infantry rather than an end in itself, and argues convincingly that the ravaging often associated with the seasonal cycle of warfare, while certainly contributing to hardship among the invaded population, was far from complete and had relatively short-term effects. Drawing on his first-hand experience as a farmer, Hanson illustrates some of the practical difficulties with destroying the olive trees, vines, and grains that formed the staples of Greek agriculture. In the course of his analysis, he brings to life the Greek countryside and its relationship to the urban center of the polis.
Although Warfare and Agriculture will be of interest to any reader interested in the classical world, it is probably of greatest interest to readers with some familiarity with Greek history. The extensive references to contemporary and modern sources, including many recent sources cited in the Updated Commentary to this revised edition, guide the interested reader to a wealth of additional information on the subject.
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Title: The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization by Victor Davis Hanson ISBN: 0520209354 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Wars of the Ancient Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson ISBN: 0304359823 Publisher: Cassell Academic Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom by Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath ISBN: 1893554260 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Ripples of Battle : How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think by Victor Hanson ISBN: 0385504004 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Mexifornia: A State of Becoming by Victor Davis Hanson ISBN: 1893554732 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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