Heavy Hammer Gym

The Warrior Ethos by Steven Pressfield

(Directly from Amazon)

WARS CHANGE, WARRIORS DON’T

We are all warriors. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in. Do we fight by a code? If so, what is it? What is the Warrior Ethos? Where did it come from? What form does it take today? How do we (and how can we) use it and be true to it in our internal and external lives?

The Warrior Ethos is intended not only for men and women in uniform, but artists, entrepreneurs and other warriors in other walks of life. The book examines the evolution of the warrior code of honor and “mental toughness.” It goes back to the ancient Spartans and Athenians, to Caesar’s Romans, Alexander’s Macedonians and the Persians of Cyrus the Great (not excluding the Garden of Eden and the primitive hunting band). Sources include Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, Vegetius, Arrian and Curtius–and on down to Gen. George Patton, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan.

Features at a Glance:

Pros:

• Short Read
• Full Of Popular Anecdotes

Cons:

• Too many anecdotes.  Hardly any original content.  It is just full of stories and points from movies, myths, and other books.
• Feels like a poorly researched high school term paper
• A pamphlet of what seems to just be titles of chapters.
• Very overpriced for the content that was included.

Where to buy:

I got mine as a birthday present.  I did have it on my Amazon wishlist because I thought it looked interesting.  Had I wanted to read a bunch of stories of ancient warriors, I would have just looked them up online.