The soul of battle

the long version

"Why do men fight? What motivates an ordinary citizen to burn and kill? What, in the end, motivates an army to win?"--BOOK JACKET. "In The Soul of Battle, Victor Davis Hanson, answers these questions in a new and startling way. Hanson offers three incredible stories - the sagas of history's greatest marches - that coalesce into a single powerful theory of men and war. Each story involves a democratic army pulled together on short notice, which marched deep into enemy territory to overthrow a government whose morality was fundamentally repugnant to its own. Each army stunned the world by covering many miles and capturing huge numbers of its demoralized foes. In all three cases, Hanson argues, conviction (more than firepower) made the difference against long odds. Hanson's conclusion has far-reaching consequences in our convictionless times: right makes might."--BOOK JACKET.