History lessons.

• Position: List - Novelist Neal Stephenson's book recommendations - Brief article - Book review

Novelist Neal Stephenson is a cult figure among libertarians, thanks to books such as Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, with their canny looks at the past and future of technology, markets, and the nation-state. His most recent project, The Baroque Cycle, is set during the Enlightenment, but lately he's been training his gaze on classical Greece and Rome, civilizations whose experiences with war, militarism, representative government, and empire are forever relevant, reason asked him to recommend three essential guides.

1 Thermopylae: The Battle for the West, by Ernie Bradford (Da Capo, 1980). "Bradford, a masterful writer, is duly skeptical of Herodotus' account but avoids excessive cynicism. He explains why the battle really mattered without coming off as sentimental or credulous."

2 The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes o[Ancient Greece, by Paul...