Victor Davis Hanson started the debate on whether there is a Western Way of War, the concept of frontal infantry assaults started by the Greeks, which was discernable from other modes of warfare and often superior. However, he has seemingly lost all interest in the concept.
In The First Clash (2011), Jim Lacey makes an astute point
Because Professor Hanson (on this topic, at least) has abandoned the intellectual battlefield, historians have begun increasingly to doubt the existence of the “Western way of war” and its alleged superiority to other methods of warfare (xxviii).
In all my reading about the Ancient Greeks and warfare, I failed to recognize that Victor Davis Hanson has hardly mentioned the Western Way of War, let alone defended the concept in well over a decade. In reviewing Hanson’s recent works in reverse chronological order, it is clear he is not discussing it anymore.
- 2013 – In The Savior Generals, which features biographies on Themistocles, Belisarius, and Sherman, there is only a brief mention to its “head-on” nature.
- 2010 – In Makers of Ancient Strategy, the concept never comes up in his introduction or his lengthy article on Epaminondas.
- 2010 – In The Father of Us All, he mentions the concept briefly in a republished article.
- 2005 – In A War Like No Other, he mentions the concept briefly only to state that Western Warfare is deadly.
We have to go back to Carnage and Culture (2001) to find a major work where Hanson clearly defines and defends the Western Way of War. It is as though he lobbed a few grenades in the form of some groundbreaking, sometimes controversial books, and then left.
Meanwhile, historians such as John A. Lynn and Hans van Wees have methodically picked the concepts apart.