Last stands : why men fight when all is lost

Last stands Why men fight when all is lost

Michael Walsh, 1949-

Book - 2020

"Walsh does a service to patriots everywhere. His must-read book allows the reader to work 'the why' around in his mind-and come to an understanding of real heroism." -Steve Bannon What are we willing to die for? Michael Walsh restores the dignity of lost concepts like honor, duty, sacrifice and patriotism for our unheroic age. What is heroism? What are its moral components-altruism, love, self-sacrifice? Why was it once celebrated, and now often dismissed as anachronistic? In this dramatic and readable account of last stands in history-famous or otherwise-Walsh explores the stakes that led men at very different times and places to face overwhelming odds and certain death for the sake of family, home and country. In Last... Stands, Walsh writes about battles in which a small group faced overwhelming odds, and all too often died to the last man-battles like Thermopylae, the Ronceveaux Pass, the Alamo, the siege of Malta, Little Big Horn, Stalingrad, Rorke's Drift, and the Warsaw Ghetto-explaining why they were fought, what their ultimate outcome was, and their afterlife in history, myth and culture"--

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Subjects
Battles > History.
Military history > Miscellanea.
Courage.
Honor.
Published
New York, NY : St. Martin's Press, an imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Michael Walsh, 1949- (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
x, 358 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781250217080
  • Prologue: The Professional is Personal
  • Introduction: To Die For
  • Chapter I. "Go Tell the Spartans" The Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.)
  • Chapter II. "Varus, Give Me Back My Legions" Cannae (216 B.C.) and the Teutoburg Forest (9 A.D.)
  • Chapter III. "We Have It In Our Power to Die Honorably As Free Men" Masada (73/74 A.D.) and Warsaw (1943)
  • Chapter IV. "We Have Come to Rue Your Prowess, Roland!" The Battle of Roncevaux Pass and La Chanson de Roland (778/1115)
  • Chapter V. "Look At Me. I Am Still Alive." The Battle of Hastings (1066)
  • Chapter VI. "I Must Perform Some Action Worthy of a Man" The Last Stand of the Swiss Guard (1527)
  • Chapter VII. "Today We Bring Dignity Upon Our Names" The Siege of Szigetvár (1566)
  • Chapter VIII. "These Aren't Men, They Are Devils!" The Alamo (1836) and Camarón (1863)
  • Chapter IX. "Lick 'Em Tomorrow, Though" Grant at Shiloh (1862)
  • Chapter X. "Big Village" Custer at the Little Bighorn (1876)
  • Chapter XI. "Tell Everyone I Died Facing the Enemy" Rorke's Drift (1879) and Khartoum (1885)
  • Chapter XII. "Not One Step Back" The Battle of Pavlov's House: Stalingrad, 1942
  • Epilogue: "Iron Mike" The Chosin Reservoir, 1950
  • Acknowledgments
  • Extracts
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Novelist and former National Review columnist Walsh (The Fiery Angel) chronicles 17 battles fought against overwhelming odds in this bellicose account. Declaring war "a masculine engagement, undertaken on behalf of females and children--in large measure to win and protect the former and to ensure the survival of the latter," Walsh begins with the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, when vastly outnumbered Greek soldiers fought off Persian invaders for three days, until a traitor sold them out. The fight for the Alamo and Custer's last stand at Little Bighorn are also discussed, as are lesser-known battles, including the clash between Germanic tribes and Roman forces at Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE, and the defeat of Sultan Suleiman's Ottoman army at the siege of Szigetvár in 1566. Walsh interviews his father, a Marine who fought in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War, for the book's epilogue. Memorable tidbits get overshadowed by Walsh's strident political views ("Today, as the Christianized West enters its fully secular, post-Christian phase, it may have to revert to its pre-Christian pagan, visceral roots as it battles the religiously animated bloodlust of Islam"), and his use of thesaurus words ("pusillanimity"; "desuetude"; "syncretic") grates. Walsh's fans will savor the hyperbole; others will be put off by the right-wing rhetoric. (Dec.)

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