The Persian Expedition
In The Persian Expedition, Xenophon, a young Athenian noble who sought his destiny abroad, provides an enthralling eyewitness account of the attempt by a Greek mercenary army--the Ten Thousand--to help Prince Cyrus overthrow his brother and take the Persian throne. When the Greeks were then betrayed by their Persian employers, they were forced to march home through hundreds of miles of difficult terrain, adrift in a hostile country and under constant attack from the unforgiving Persians and warlike tribes. In this outstanding description of endurance and individual bravery, Xenophon, one of those chosen to lead the retreating army, provides a vivid narrative of the campaign and its aftermath, and his account remains one of the best pictures we have of Greeks confronting a 'barbarian' world.
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- Xenophon's "Persian Expedition" is one of my favorite books. It's picaresque yet sincere in a way that few writers achieve.
- I used to have a lot more time for non CS reading and actually made an Amazon list on this topic back in 2005:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/2INJSM38...
1. On War (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Carl Von Clausewitz
2. Leadership: The Warrior's Art by Barry R. McCaffrey
3. Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach by Dandridge M. Malone
4. The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat by James R. McDonough
5. The Art of Maneuver: Maneuver-Warfare Theory and AirLand Battle by Robert Leonhard
6. Strategy: Second Revised Edition (Meridian) by B. H. Liddell Hart
7. The Art of War by Niccolò Machiavelli
8. Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri by Tsunetomo Yamamoto
9. The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
10. The Art of War (Shambhala classics) by Sun Tzu
11. The Prince (Bantam Classics) by Niccolo Machiavelli
12. Evolutionary Game Theory by Jörgen W. Weibull
13. On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Tse-tung
14. The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) by Thucydides
15. The Histories (Penguin Classics) by Herodotus
16. The Persian Expedition (Penguin Classics) by Xenophon
17. Plutarch: Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Modern Library Series, Vol. 1) by Plutarch
18. Plutarch's Lives, Volume 2 (Modern Library Classics) by Plutarch
19. Livy: The Early History of Rome, Books I-V (Penguin Classics) (Bks. 1-5) by Titus Livy
20. The History of Rome from Its Foundation, Books XXI-XXX: The War with Hannibal (Penguin Classics) (Bks. 21-30) by Titus Livius Livy
- Thank you, this is a very useful model of the philosophical differences between Russia and the west since the fall of the soviet union and provides some quality food for thought about how to change the direction geopolitics are going with the resurgence of strongmen across the globe.
I have traveled to Ukraine and Russia several times, dated a Russian briefly, then a Ukrainian, worked with Ukrainians in DC for several years, learned a bit of Russian and Ukrainian along the way... One of the things that I did not anticipate at first was the shared philosophical heritage with the west - my Russian ex-girlfriend's favorite book was Seneca's Letters to Lucilius, for one random example. For another, take a visit (in better times) to the Hermitage in St Petersburg and notice how the museum honors greek/roman philosophy and empire as much as any western museum.
The philosophical position upon which this country was founded - the rise of what recon517 is calling the "Everybody Must Be Soft" philosophy - has only been a dominant force recently, really only coming onto stage in the 20th century. It is not what has ruled the world for the majority of our 6,000 years of civilization and there is no guarantee that it will continue to do so. The idea that those who take and keep power by whatever means have a moral right to it is not new. I recently finished reading Xenophon's Anabasis (aka The Persian Expedition), and this philosophy seeps through just about every page as the Greek army lays waste to anyone not deemed of benefit to them, even fellow Greeks. Xenophon was a close friend of Socrates, remember.
Xenophon addressing the army, Anabasis book 6: "As long as you stay together united as to-day, you will command respect and procure provisions; for might certainly exercises a right over what belongs to the weaker."
My point with all of this is 1) we have more shared history than you might think, and 2) that if you enjoy the fruits of an equality mindset over the fruits of a winner-takes-all mindset, then do not take it for granted. Its dominance in politics is not guaranteed, at home or abroad.
Live it, understand it, be it, calmly share it, never force it. We cannot win this war of ideas by treating it like a war. The irony is that in the end it is far more powerful to cooperate than to take, but the success rests upon preventing individuals from concentrating and exercising that power.
My two cents, another imperfect model for consideration.
