First time read of Hanson and he lost me on his specialty, Greek military history; but that was then and this is now and his conclusions are encouraging.
This is one of his appeals to me. He looks at the current events with perspective of history. Lots of people, pundits and forum participants alike, make a common mistake of looking at the events like they happened in vacuum, without relation even to the very recent history. VDH favorite point is that the nature of man did not change that much during the last millenniums, and we can learn a lot by analyzing classic history and later battles as well. BTW, he was a visiting professor in the Annapolis Naval Academy for a year just recently. I am jealous to those who had opportunity to study with him. I bought and read his book on important battles. Very interesting.
(Carnage and Culture : Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power ) One of his thesis is that the Western warrior is deadlier in battle because he is a free man. More of his books are
here.