Hat tip to Port McClellan for calling my attention to Steven Pressfield’s book The Afghan Campaign, a historical novelization of Alexander the Great’s war in Afghanistan and part of the Claremont Institute’s annual Christmas Book recommendations. I loved Pressfield’s Gates of Fire novel about the battle of Thermopylae and I admired his story-telling craft in his book Tides of War, though I never warmed to its main character, Alcibiades. (Pressfield also wrote the charming and somewhat mystical book, The Legend of Bagger Vance.)



I am totally up for reading his novelization of Alexander’s misadventure among the Afghans — and why shouldn’t I be? Here’s Claremont president Brian Kennedy’s description of Pressfield: “Think Victor Davis Hanson meets Mark Helprin.” Helprin is my favorite author and VDH is working his way up my list. I trust Pressfield’s research and attention to detail, and the subject is very topical. I look forward to putting this book “On the Nightstand”.

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