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The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern. By Victor Davis Hanson. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010. 260 pp. $25.
Inspired by a quote from the ancient philosopher Heraclitus - that war is "the father, the king of us all" - Hanson's latest book offers many insights into the nature of war, especially within the context of contemporary America's outlook on armed conflict in general and vis-à-vis the Middle East and Islam in particular.
Hanson, a military historian and essayist, begins his analysis by explaining how and why military studies in American schools have all but disappeared. The situation might not be so troubling if it was not accompanied by the fact that there is virtually...