Book Lecture: A Rage to Conquer

The Institute of World Politics

About the Lecture: A sequel to Michael Walsh’s Last Stands, his new book A Rage to Conquer is a journey through the twelve of the most important battles in Western history. As Walsh sees it, war is an important facet of every culture – and, for better or worse, our world is unthinkable without it. War has been an essential part of the human condition throughout history, the principal agent of societal change, waged by men on behalf of, and in pursuit of, their gods, women, riches, power, and the sheer joy of combat. In A Rage to Conquer, Walsh brings history to life as he considers a group of courageous commanders and the battles they waged that became crucial to the course of Western history. He looks first at Carl Von Clausewitz, the seminal thinker in the Western canon dealing with war. He then moves on to Achilles at Ilium, Alexander at Gaugamela, Caesar at Alesia, Constantine at the Milvian Bridge, Aetius at the Catalaunian Plains, Bohemond at Dorylaeum and Antioch, Napoleon at Austerlitz, Pershing at St.-Mihiel, Nimitz at Midway and Patton at the Bulge with a final consideration of how the Battle of 9/11 was ultimately lost by the U.S. and what that portends for the future. About the Speaker: The author of more than fifteen novels and non-fiction books, Michael Walsh was the classical music critic for Time Magazine and received the 2004 American Book Awards prize for fiction for his gangster novel, And All the Saints in 2004. His popular columns for National Review written under the pseudonym David Kahane were developed into the book, Rules for Radical Conservatives. His books The Devil’s Pleasure Palace and The Fiery Angel, examine the enemies, heroes, triumphs and struggles of Western Civilization from the ancient past to the present time. He divides his time between Connecticut and Ireland.