Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

Really good narrative history of a famous if murky part of history.

Murky in the sense of few sources, and dense myth making by successive generations right up to today.

There is a great introduction that teases the trope of indulgent imperial East an plucky democratic West, emphasising the importance of the war, then turning it around and setting the stage for a deeper analysis.

The Persians were no barbarians (though brutal at times), and the ideal of democracy both grew out of a snake pit and was rarely lived up to. Smart and what I'd expect from a top historian, though I would suggest sections of the book fall back into this comfortable trap.

The background section on the Achaemenid Persians was outstanding. Inspired by both Dan Carlin and Goodreads recommendation (thanks Noah!) It was this view into a lost world of clashing peoples, ideas, and religions that I enjoyed the most. There are wonderful descriptions of both sweeping ideas and technology such as the road and travel system, and marvelously gruesome tidbits such as how Cambyses had his army nail cats to their shields to shock the pious Egyptians.

The sections on the Greeks, particularly the Athenians, is not as fun! A long list of aristocratic families repeatedly stabbing each other in the back. Though I did like learning how the right to cruise for prostitutes became a cornerstone of their democracy.

The Spartan section is illumating, and of course not shy of gruesome tidbits themselves - the institutionalised sexual abuse of minors for one! Not a place you would want to grow up in.

The main sections and battles are expertly sketched out (and coloured in) with the authors analytical eye never too far away. Exciting and informative.

The postscript is also enlightening - it really hit me just how corrupt and vicious the democratic (and wider Greek system) was, slipping rapidly into yet more backstabbing, empire building, and soon enough a shedding of the very ideals the luminaries of the 'west' spend so long shining a light upon.

The Persians were fine of course after this bloody nose on the outskirts of Empire...never to hear from the rowdy people's from across the Hellespont again.