The End of Everything

How Wars Descend into Annihilation

By: Victor Davis Hanson

Narrated by: Bob Souer

A New York Times-bestselling historian charts how and why societies from ancient Greece to the modern era chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time

War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization—sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction.

In The End of Everything, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war’s drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary listeners to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again.

©2024 Victor Davis Hanson (P)2024 Basic Books

Critic reviews

“This stupendous book offers a gripping account of catastrophic defeat. Outstanding military historian Victor Davis Hanson takes us through four wars, each of which not only crushed an enemy but destroyed a civilization. Are we doomed to go the way of Thebes, Carthage, the Byzantines, or the Aztecs? To understand the challenges we face, you must read The End of Everything.”—Barry Strauss, author of The War that Made the Roman Empire

“What a paragon and a powerhouse is Hanson! The hymnal tells us of the fate of ‘Earth’s proud empires’ and the poet reminds us of what will happen to ‘our pomp of yesterday,’ yet it takes an historian of Hanson’s intellectual caliber to explain how and why civilizations are annihilated in war, with example after well-researched and cogently written example. As well as Hanson the historian, however, here too is Hanson the philosopher, with his insightful take on how human nature has failed to adapt to our ultra-technological age. Readers will be shocked quite how often total military, cultural, and societal extirpation happens in in our species’ story. We need to learn from this groundbreaking book how to stop it happening to us.”—Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill

“In recent years, we have witnessed man’s inhumanity toward man that many thought had been consigned to the distant past. In The End of Everything, Hanson tells compelling and harrowing stories of how civilizations perished. He helps us consider contemporary affairs in light of that history, think about the unthinkable, and recognize the urgency of trying to prevent our own demise.”—H. R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds

Erudite

Prescient and relevant to out time. pay attention because it can happen to us.

Failures of foreign policy

The more things change, the more they stay the same
Apparently we can’t give pithy statements.
“15 word minimum”

The factors that lead to total annihilation are sobering.

I like the point that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The stakes are now much higher following the invention and proliferation of nuclear weapons. A very interesting read presenting the various points pf view regarding each situation. Every chapter has more interesting stuff!

Exceptional.

Excellent. Did not want to stop listening. Provoke much thought. Consider myself a history student this however takes history to a very different level. Highly recommend

historical examples to contemporary issues.

Lessons from history. Juxtaposition of historical examples to contemporary threats places ominous insights into what is possible.

Great book

Amazing book i came to it through Mr. Victors podcast this book gave me great intrigue as i bedded tobacco land in rural SC. It really kept me occupied and thinking about how quick all i know could end.

It filled in parts of history I did not know!

An excellent book. The historical information is excellent and he is careful to keep supposition separate from facts and observations. I highly recommend it.

Remarkable

In a world of such magnitude of conflict and threats and declining American leadership this may be the most important book we can study.

Very good, but a little too academic for me.

Very good, but a little too academic for me. Overall, it was a good book. Very good.

The book is extremely knowledgeable. It really opens one’s eyes to human nature.

Loved everything about the book and thanks to Mark Levin for recommending Victor Hanson’s amazing read or in my case listen.