The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War » (Bargain)

Caroline Alexander is the author of the international bestsellers The Endurance and The Bounty. A Rhodes Scholar, she was a lecturer at the University of Malawi, where she established the department of classics. She received her doctorate in classics at Columbia University, where she was a Mellon Fellow in the humanities. Alexander is a contributing writer to National Geographic Magazine and has written for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and Outside.

The Iliad is celebrated as one of the greatest of all works of literature, the epic of all epics. But while the dramatic events of the Trojan War are legendary, the true theme of this ancient poem is often forgotten: the horror and enduring devastation of war. Written with the authority of a scholar and the vigor of a bestselling narrative historian, The War That Killed Achilles is a superb and timely presentation of one of the timeless stories of Western civilization. Caroline Alexander has taken apart a narrative we think we know and put it back together in a way that illuminates its true power, relevant to all wars, past and present.

The New York Times - Dwight Garner

Caroline Alexander's new book, The War That Killed Achilles, is not a new translation of "The Iliad"…but an attempt at a fresh reading of it, one that focuses almost solely on what this martial epic has to say about the conduct and meaning of war…[Alexander] pursues her thesis relentlessly, and brings to its pursuit many of her gifts as a narrative historian.

Map: Landscape of the Trojan War

The Things They Carried 1

Chain of Command 16

Terms of Engagement 39

Enemy Lines 64

Land of My Fathers 83

In God We Trust 106

Man Down 123

No Hostages 149

The Death of Hektor 174

Everlasting Glory 192

Acknowledgments 227

Notes 229

Selected Further Reading 273

Index 279