Glorious Defiance - Last Stands Throughout History by Karl, Dennis

Paragon House, New York, 1990. first US edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6 x 9, VG/VG CONDITION, xv, 237 pages, bibliog., index.............................................. Last stands, in which an elite unit of soldiers with little chance for victory chooses to fight to the last man, have occurred in every age of mankind's martial past. These spectacular defeats are remembered as well, if not better than, the great victories. While military engagements always involve soldiers who flee, or are ordered to leave, the story of men who fight a hopeless battle to the end continues to inspire our compassion and fascinate historians. Until now, last stands have been studied individually and have remained much glorified yet little understood events.................................................................The first book of its kind, Glorious Defiance is an analytical treatment of last stands in battles throughout history, from ancient Greece to Vietnam. Using primary sources, Dennis Karl provides detailed narrative accounts of eleven battlesspanning a period of two-and-one-half millenniaand examines the political situations in which they occurred. Although they varied greatly in tactics and scale, these stands all had an historical significance that went beyond the deaths of the participants.................................................................. A major part of Glorious Defiance chronicles how the actions of these courageous soldiers bought time for larger forces to be gathered, or provided symbolic inspiration to spur their countrymen to a subsequent victory. At Thermopylae, for example, King Leonidas of Sparta and his bodyguard of three hundred men died in a pass in Northern Greece protecting Athens from the onslaught of the Persian hordes; and the valiant deaths of the men under Crockett, Travis, and Bowie at the Alamo gained valuable time for Sam Houston to set up his decisive victory at San Jacinto. Other battles examined include Masada, Hastings, Waterloo, Little Big Horn, and Dien Bien Phu.