Shop Back to School savings
$29.99
FREE delivery on your first order.
This title will be released on September 2, 2025.
Pre-order now.
$$29.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$29.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Sold by
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle app

  • The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation
  • To view this video, download

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation Paperback – Sept. 2 2025

4.6 out of 5 stars 2,281 ratings

Savings Pre-order Price Guarantee. Terms

' + '' + decodeURIComponent(encodedIframeContent) + ''+''); doc.close(); } } this.iframeload = function () { var iframe = document.getElementById(iframeId); iframe.style.display = ''; setTimeout(function () { setIframeHeight(initialResizeCallback); }, 20); } function getDocHeight(doc) { var contentDiv = doc.getElementById("iframeContent"); var docHeight = 0; if(contentDiv){ docHeight = Math.max( contentDiv.scrollHeight, contentDiv.offsetHeight, contentDiv.clientHeight ); } return docHeight; } function setIframeHeight(resizeCallback) { var iframeDoc, iframe = document.getElementById(iframeId); iframeDoc = ((iframe.contentWindow && iframe.contentWindow.document) || iframe.contentDocument); if (iframeDoc) { var h = getDocHeight(iframeDoc); if (h && h != 0) { iframe.style.height = parseInt(h) + 'px'; if(typeof resizeCallback == "function") { resizeCallback(iframeId); } } else if (nTries < MAX_TRIES) { nTries++; setTimeout(function () { setIframeHeight(resizeCallback); }, 50); } } } this.resizeIframe = function(resizeCallback) { nTries = 0; setIframeHeight(resizeCallback); } } return DynamicIframe; });
An instant New York Times bestseller, this “profound book” (Wall Street Journal) charts how and why some societies chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time

War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization—sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction. 

In
The End of Everything, now with an extended conclusion, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war’s drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again. 

Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.

Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

Frequently bought together

This item: The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation
$29.99
This title will be released on September 2, 2025.
Pre-order now.
Ships from and sold by 鶹.ca.
Total price:$00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Choose items to buy together.
Popular Highlights in this book

Product description

Review

"Relevant to the modern world by combining granularity with big-picture analysis and teasing out meaning from a mastery of details... [A] profound book."―Wall Street Journal

“Magisterial accounts of four cataclysmic case studies make this a must for anyone with an interest in ancient and premodern history...Hanson writes elegantly and uses an impressive range of documentation, both ancient and contemporary, with due consideration given to different perspectives.Ũĕ
Irish Times

"Victor Davis Hanson, impressively learned, imaginative, temperate, and discerning, has writtena history of the most vicious old wars that is also instructive in dealing with modern monsters."―
Claremont Review of Books

“This stupendous book offers a gripping account of catastrophic defeat. Outstanding military historian Victor Davis Hanson takes us through four wars, each of which not only crushed an enemy but destroyed a civilization. Are we doomed to go the way of Thebes, Carthage, the Byzantines, or the Aztecs? To understand the challenges we face, you must read
The End of Everything.ŨĕBarry Strauss, author of The War that Made the Roman Empire

“What a paragon and a powerhouse is Hanson! The hymnal tells us of the fate of ‘Earth’s proud empires’ and the poet reminds us of what will happen to ‘our pomp of yesterday,’ yet it takes an historian of Hanson’s intellectual caliber to explain how and why civilizations are annihilated in war, with example after well-researched and cogently written example. As well as Hanson the historian, however, here too is Hanson the philosopher, with his insightful take on how human nature has failed to adapt to our ultra-technological age. Readers will be shocked quite how often total military, cultural, and societal extirpation happens in in our species’ story. We need to learn from this groundbreaking book how to stop it happening to us.Ũĕ
Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill

“In recent years, we have witnessed man’s inhumanity toward man that many thought had been consigned to the distant past. In
The End of Everything, Hanson tells compelling and harrowing stories of how civilizations perished. He helps us consider contemporary affairs in light of that history, think about the unthinkable, and recognize the urgency of trying to prevent our own demise.ŨĕH. R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds

Review

"Relevant to the modern world by combining granularity with big-picture analysis and teasing out meaning from a mastery of details... [A] profound book."―Wall Street Journal

“Magisterial accounts of four cataclysmic case studies make this a must for anyone with an interest in ancient and premodern history...Hanson writes elegantly and uses an impressive range of documentation, both ancient and contemporary, with due consideration given to different perspectives.Ũĕ
Irish Times

"Victor Davis Hanson, impressively learned, imaginative, temperate, and discerning, has writtena history of the most vicious old wars that is also instructive in dealing with modern monsters."―
Claremont Review of Books

“This stupendous book offers a gripping account of catastrophic defeat. Outstanding military historian Victor Davis Hanson takes us through four wars, each of which not only crushed an enemy but destroyed a civilization. Are we doomed to go the way of Thebes, Carthage, the Byzantines, or the Aztecs? To understand the challenges we face, you must read
The End of Everything.ŨĕBarry Strauss, author of The War that Made the Roman Empire

“What a paragon and a powerhouse is Hanson! The hymnal tells us of the fate of ‘Earth’s proud empires’ and the poet reminds us of what will happen to ‘our pomp of yesterday,’ yet it takes an historian of Hanson’s intellectual caliber to explain how and why civilizations are annihilated in war, with example after well-researched and cogently written example. As well as Hanson the historian, however, here too is Hanson the philosopher, with his insightful take on how human nature has failed to adapt to our ultra-technological age. Readers will be shocked quite how often total military, cultural, and societal extirpation happens in in our species’ story. We need to learn from this groundbreaking book how to stop it happening to us.Ũĕ
Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill

“In recent years, we have witnessed man’s inhumanity toward man that many thought had been consigned to the distant past. In
The End of Everything, Hanson tells compelling and harrowing stories of how civilizations perished. He helps us consider contemporary affairs in light of that history, think about the unthinkable, and recognize the urgency of trying to prevent our own demise.ŨĕH. R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ Sept. 2 2025
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541673514
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541673519
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 322 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 2.38 x 21.08 cm
  • 鶹 Rank: #399,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 2,281 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Victor Davis Hanson
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history and classics at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of over two dozen books, including The Second World Wars, The Dying Citizen, and The End of Everything. He lives in Selma, California.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
2,281 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from Canada

Top reviews from other countries

  • UCT graduate and alumnus
    4.0 out of 5 stars "I told you so"
    Reviewed in Germany on September 15, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    VDH’s book brings up a sense of Gore Vidal ‘s maxim:
    “The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so”.
    Except that when you get to the “I told you so” moment, it’s very likely that you have already been vaporized by a nuclear blast.
    Given that I knew next to nothing about the fall of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople or Tenochtitlán, I found it riveting.
  • Bruno Leal Rodrigues
    5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book!
    Reviewed in Brazil on July 29, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    VDH provides another solid analysis of human mind and warfare! One of the greatest scholars of our time. An informative and entertaining book!
  • Alan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Crazy delays
    Reviewed in Australia on December 31, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Great book. Took three delivery attempts before we met courier a kilometer away from home!! Need to use Australia Post instead...easy to get lost on our area if you use Google maps.
  • Stu In Tokyo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Once Again VDH Nails It
    Reviewed in Japan on June 17, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    If VDH taught history when I was in school I would have studied more!
  • Claude Medeot
    5.0 out of 5 stars V.D.Hanson The End of Everything
    Reviewed in Sweden on June 11, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Excellent Book by Victor Davis Hanson. I've read ancient history as a young man and know the topics that are covered here but the analysis of those known facts viewed here is different because they are put into a formidable other perception; gives more depth to understanding.
    It's very probable that we would never have come to view things in such a novel fashion as is presented and exposed in this book.
    Such writings bring much enjoyment to re-reading history.
    Bravo Mr. Hanson