#15m Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield

This book changed my mind. I had always considered Sparta to be a hyper-militaristic society in which young boys were seen as property of the state, and forcibly trained as soldiers from a young age. In Gates of Fire, the Spartan approach is shown as a reasonable response to the environment of constant warfare in which they lived, and the training of the young to be a patriotic duty willingly embraced by the young boys and their fathers and mothers. This look from the inside is told by a young man who came to Sparta after his home town was destroyed through treachery. He came because "Sparta makes men". It is more than the tale of the battle of Thermopylae, though there is plenty of that. It is a sympathetic portrayal of the nobility of the Spartans, of their selflessness in sacrificing for their home and families. I recommend this book to all.