Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
A philosophical and spiritual defense of the premodern world, of the tragic view, of physical courage, and of masculinity and self-sacrifice in an age when those ancient virtues are too often caricatured and dismissed.
--Victor Davis Hanson
Award-winning author Michael Walsh celebrates the masculine attributes of heroism that forged American civilization and Western culture by exploring historical battles in which soldiers chose death over dishonor in Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost.
In our contemporary era, men are increasingly denied their heritage as warriors. A survival instinct that's part of the human condition, the drive to wage war is natural. Without war, the United States would not exist. The technology that has eased manual labor, extended lifespans, and become an integral part of our lives and culture has often evolved from wartime scientific advancements. War is necessary to defend the social and political principles that define the virtues and freedoms of America and other Western nations. We should not be ashamed of the heroes who sacrificed their lives to build a better world. We should be honoring them.
The son of a Korean War veteran of the Inchon landing and the battle of the Chosin Reservoir with the U.S. Marine Corps, Michael Walsh knows all about heroism, valor, and the call of duty that requires men to fight for something greater than themselves to protect their families, fellow countrymen, and most of all their fellow soldiers. In Last Stands, Walsh reveals the causes and outcomes of more than a dozen battles in which a small fighting force refused to surrender to a far larger force, often dying to the last man.
From the Spartans' defiance at Thermopylae and Roland's epic defense of Charlemagne's rear guard at Ronceveaux Pass, through Santa Anna's siege of the Alamo defended by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie to the skirmish at Little Big Horn between Crazy Horse's Sioux nation and George Armstrong Custer's Seventh Calvary, to the Soviets' titanic struggle against the German Wehrmacht at Stalingrad, and more, Walsh reminds us all of the debt we owe to heroes willing to risk their lives against overwhelming odds--and how these sacrifices and battles are not only a part of military history but our common civilizational heritage.