Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 055380734X, Hardcover)
Marathon—one of history’s most pivotal battles. Its very name evokes images of almost superhuman courage, endurance, and fighting spirit. But until now, the story of what happened at Marathon has been told exclusively through the narrow viewpoint of specialists in antiquity. In this eye-opening new book, acclaimed journalist Jim Lacey, both a military historian and a combat veteran, takes a fresh look at Marathon and reveals why the battle happened, how it was fought, and whether, in fact, it saved Western civilization.
Lacey brilliantly reconstructs the world of the fifth century B.C. leading up to the astonishing military defeat of the Persian Empire by the vastly undermanned but determined Greek defenders. Using the seminal work of Herodotus as his starting point, Lacey reconstructs the tactical and strategic scenario of the battle, including how many combatants each side might have used and who actually led the Greeks. He also disputes the long-repeated myths of Athenian inexperience and effete Persian arrogance.
With the kind of vivid detail that characterizes the best modern war reportage, Lacey shows how the heavily armed Persian army was shocked, demoralized, and ultimately defeated by the relentless assault of the Athenian phalanx, which battered the Persian line in a series of brutal attacks. He reveals the fascinating aftermath of Marathon, how its fighters became the equivalent of our “Greatest Generation,” and challenges the view of many historians that Marathon ultimately proved the Greek “Western way of war” to be the superior strategy for fighting—and winning—battles to the present day.
Immediate, visceral, and full of new analyses that defy decades of conventional wisdom,
The First Clash is a superb interpretation of a conflict that indeed made the world safe for Aristotle, Plato, and our own modern democracy. But it was also a battle whose legacy and lessons have often been misunderstood—perhaps, now more than ever, at our own peril.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:26:27 -0400)
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(2.5)
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1
I'm definitely not an expert on the ancient world, so it was really helpful that Lacey took a while to build up to Marathon. The first six chapters are devoted to the history of the Persians; the following three discuss Greece, focusing on Sparta and Athens. Four more chapters discuss the warfare techniques of the major players. It is not until the penultimate chapter of the book that Lacey finally narrates the Battle of Marathon itself. I wish he'd done so a little earlier in the book; with the 'story' of the battle in the back of the mind I think I would have had an easier time reading the more technical chapters.
One of the nice things Lacey does is very clearly delineate which proposed ideas are his own, which ones belong to other scholars, and what ideas actually stem from the ancients. For example, when trying to answer the question How far can a hoplite run? Lacey admits that virtually every previous writer has dismissed Herodotus' claim that the Athenians ran eight stadia, or nearly a mile, in full battle gear, to confront the Persians. It's generally considered impossible. But Lacey points out that soldiers conditioned to run with combat gear can certainly do so – look at American soldiers in Iraq! The difference is that these men are trained for a task, while the studies done at universities typically use students for their test subjects. After consideration, he decides that the Athenians could certainly move very briskly, but they could not have moved at full speed without losing the cohesion of their phalanx. They were 'running' but they certainly weren't sprinting the entire distance.
The text is pretty dry, and at times it's a challenge to keep all the Greek and Persian personalities straight. But for those interested in Ancient Greece or military history, it's a fresh new look at one of the most influential battles in Western history. (