History repeating?

In my spare time, one of the things I enjoy is reading. I inherited this habit from my late mother, who could churn through a novel a day when she found an author she liked.

I'm not that voracious or fast. In fact, there are times when it will take me several weeks to get through a 400 page novel. It all depends on what is going on at the time.

Reading is a wonderful escape, and a very affordable one. The power of words projected into your imagination truly knows no bounds. I believe that's why when movies or television shows are adapted from books that many often say "I thought the book was better." It wasn't necessarily the fault of the actors, writers or even special effects artists, but it is rare when a production can equal what you have seen in your mind's eye.

I'm a fan of historical fiction, where actual events are entwined with fictional characters, who serve as eyewitnesses to history. Some of the authors who excel at this novel format are Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow and an author I discovered this fall: Steven Pressfield.

Each of these authors have done extensive research about the periods they are writing about and several of them take the time at the end of the novel to tell you what was fact and what was fiction.

Cornwell's series about England during the times of King Alfred the Great are wonderful. The prose is descriptive and accessible. Alfred fought off numerous invasions by Danish Viking raiding parties, and nearly lost everything, spending one winter in a swamp.

Scarrow writes about life in the Roman legions during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, told through the eyes of centurions Macro and Cato, who have adventures in newly conquered Britain, Gaul, Germany and Palestine.

I have only read two of Pressfield's novels, but have enjoyed them both. "Gates of Fire" tells the tale of Spartan King Leonidas and his force of 300 at Thermopylae. The movie "300" that came out a couple of years ago told the story about how these warriors held back a much larger force of the Persian King Xeres, eventually all dying.

Having already seen the movie, I was anxious to learn more about the Spartans and Leonidas. It turns out that Leonidas was 50 years old when he faced the Persians, very old for those days. It's a further testament to the training and culture of the Spartans. Many of their practices we would consider barbaric today, but they worked for them.

I finished a second novel by Pressfield last weekend. "The Afghan Campaign" tells the story of Alexander the Great's three year war in Afghanistan, the longest war ever fought by the conqueror of the known world.

It was also a different type of war. Instead of facing main force armies, Alexander's troops battled tribesmen of what is now Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Afghanistan's terrain and people have been successfully fending off conquerors for at least 2,300 years. The novel describes the changes in warfare that Alexander's army is forced to employ, with atrocities committed by both sides. The changes in the eyewitness used in the novel are striking and disturbing.

Eventually the war is "won" when Alexander allies himself with one of the tribal chieftains and marries his daughter. This allows Alexander to push on into India, but he leaves 10,000 infantrymen and 3,500 cavalry -- a fifth of his army -- to keep the country from reverting to insurgency.

Obviously, there are parallels to what is going on today in Afghanistan and what happened nearly 2,400 years ago. The weapons and technology may have changed, as well as the combatants, but much remains the same.

I hope that our soldiers fare better than Alexander's, and that a permanent, lasting peace can be achieved.

But, as the saying goes, those that fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.