Guest: Philip Matyszak, author & historian 

Recorded: December 17, 2018

For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode #162 about ancient Sparta—the ultimate warrior tribe, romanticized by everyone from Plato to Bush-era neocons, and waffendweebs in between. We talk to historian Philip Mayszak, who appeared on the popular RWN EP #151 about Athens' disastrous Sicily campaign, discusses with us his two recent and highly recommended (by us) books on Sparta: "Sparta: Rise of a Warrior Nation" and "Sparta: Fall of a Warrior Nation". Lot of surprises and myths debunked. Sparta was essentially a proto-fascist slave state that ruled through terror and cult indoctrination, and eventually decayed into collapse due to the oldest reason of all: Inequality, the concentration of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands. 

Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 162 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  

Buy Philip Matyszak's books on Sparta: "Sparta: Rise of a Warrior Nation" and "Sparta: Fall of a Warrior Nation". Read Matyszak's blog.