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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 938
EAN num: 9780307279484
ISBN number: 0307279480
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: June 12, 2007
Publishing house: Anchor
Release Date: June 12, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 42040
Studio: Anchor
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In the fifth century B.C., a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece.
The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history. Tom Holland’s brilliant study of these critical Persian Wars skillfully examines a conflict of critical importance to both ancient and modern history.
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Rated by buyers 
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The Persian Wars may the most mythologized wars in the history of Western Civilization. Persian Fire is one of the best versions of this. It has a touch for poetry and grandeur of a sort that the subject deserves and gives a sweeping picture of the Ancient World. It's chief flaw is the author's curious taste for heavy-handed and rather tedious anti-Zoroastrian digs and the rather absurd implication that Xerxes really thought of himself as fighting a Parsee Holy War. But despite that weakness, it is a great book and well worth the read.
Rated by buyers -
This was one of the most rivetting reads I have encountered in the field of popular history. I finally tackled it shortly after seeing the cartoon cut-out version of the film "300" for the very first time, and actually found this more balanced account the more moving and fascinating. There can be no doubt about the unique symbolic significance of Thermopylae, which might have been made for cinema, but once one looks past the pro-Greek propaganda to try and see how the suicidal stand fits into the broader flow of the history of the time there is much to ponder.
Holland does justice to this richness and avoids a monochrome portrayal of "freedom" against "tyranny". Clearly there were great cultural riches on both sides, as well as great inspiration for totalitarian, industrial-era regimes. The Nazis understandably saw Sparta as a model society; the Persians issued ration chits to ducks being fattened for the royal table. (A duck was entitled to more wine per day than a young woman of low birth might be allocated per week.) Here are two models of the repressive state - one of patriotic submission to the state by the individual, one of pervasive and obsessive bureaucracy. On the other hand the Athenians brought us the concept of democracy, while the Persians freed the Jews from their captivity and tolerated all manner of religions in a way that the Mongols, and then the secular West, were to echo centuries later. So cartoon versions make for great cinema, but poor understanding. Holland sure-footedly avoids this more simplistic portrayal and still manages to create an exciting and fascinating read.
Here are some potential misconceptions which Holland clarifies for victims of Holywood's various references to Thermopylae:
Aristodemus was not half-blinded in battle but laid up by an eye infection along with one other man, the other of whom ordered a slave to lead him blind into battle and died there, against Leonidas' instructions. Aristodemus was condemned as a coward when he got back and forced to wear the patched cloak of the "trembler". When the army met the Persians a year later at Plataea he, alone of all the Spartans, broke formation and charged the enemy, redeeming himself from the charge of cowardice but proving himself to be deplorably excitable.
Plataea took nearly ten days, with the Spartans and Athenians holding their ground while being harried by Persian cavalry, until the Persians managed to destroy the water supply which they had left unguarded. The two groups got split up retreating to a new defensive position and the Persians, numbering about 80-100,000, took the opportunity to take on the Spartans alone, cavalry and light infantry against heavy hoplite infantry with at least a three-to-one advantage. The hoplites turned, formed up and slowly and systematically chopped the Persians into buzzard food over the course of a whole day. The Persian satrap got a rock in the head, his troops started to panic and by the end only about 3,000 survived. Then the Greeks went back to fighting each other.
Marathon and, primarily, Salamis were also decisive, with the Athenians at Salamis destroying a superior fleet by ambushing them in a narrow strait where the Persian's manoeuvrability was negated. Somewhat similar to Thermopylae, in fact, but with a more satisfactory outcome for the Greeks.
Oh, and the 300 did not die alone. The heroes of freedom were accompanied by about 1,000 helot slaves who were ordered to remain to the suicidal final stand.
One of these days I'll go and visit these places, carrying a copy of Herodotus. Until then, I'll be returning to this excellent book.
Rated by buyers -
Holland's PERSIAN FIRE is the latest companion to Herodotus, reading similarly as good literature. The author carefully examines ancient sources, often balancing conflicting accounts. Playing legend against legend, comparing text against text, Holland incisively crafts the most plausible characters and events, and his subjects like Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and Themistocles thus emerge far more realistically from their usual dim grandness. A historian for historians, Holland is a must read for Classical history courses on the sixth century BC emergence of Persia and the fifth century BC battles between Greece and Persia.
Rated by buyers -
This is the best history book I have read in 10 years. Tom Holland takes the wispy threads of that time and knits a deep, rich tapestry that reads like a work of fiction. A very readable tale, it shows just how close we came to NOT having Western Civilization as we know it today. If you are a fan of the Spartans, don't read it. The truth about these people is very dark and unpleasant and not at all like the glorified computer enhanced film. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Rated by buyers -
This fine book tells the story of an earlier war between East and West. In the fifth century BC, a global superpower was determined to bring order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, the terrorist states Athens and Sparta. As Holland points out, "even the mightiest empires can suffer from overstretch."
He mordantly notes, with a passing hit at the British state's `special relationship' with the declining USA, "There was no greater source of self-contentment for a subject-nation, after all, and no surer badge of its continued servitude, than to imagine that it might have been graced with a special relationship with the king."
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