[p5a0u9l]

Steven Pressfield is an amazing writer. I think he's the one who wrote about the Spartans and how ridiculously tough they were. I encountered the book as a paperback left in a bin for soldiers to take and read during some dumb deployment. Not that one, but a small one to Poland. This was 2002.

[abhijat]

Yes I think it was called "Gates Of Fire". There is another book of his called "The Afghan Campaign" that I liked. It is about a greek soldier passing through Afghanistan for Alexander's campaign to reach India.

[b0rsuk]

Bret Deveraux is a PHD historian and a critic of Pressfield. He picks apart his argument for "universal warrior" and concludes it has an ideology behind it. The ideology is fascism.

https://acoup.blog/2021/02/19/collections-the-universal-warr...

edit: the earlier version of my post used the word "agenda" instead of "ideology", but that was a bit unfair given Bret himself gives Pressfield benefit of doubt.

This article specifically mentions Gates of Fire.

[ramblerman]

What a tiring rant.

For anyone that hasn’t read gates of fire I highly recommend it. It is historical fiction and a thrilling journey.

You can make up your own mind about supposed hidden agendas, or …just enjoy a great story.

[mud_dauber]

Seconded.