He’s a smart cookie. My introduction to his work was his doctoral dissertation-come-academic monograph, the Western Way of War, in which he analyzed all the data (textual, iconographic, epigraphical, empirical) pertaining to the Ancient Greek hoplite form of warfare. He made some surprising conclusions that the field of Classics hasn’t accepted yet, but it was tough to argue against him because he was so thorough and was willing to reject the narrative everyone knew, in favor of what the evidence actually indicated.
I think he’s done the same with politics. One of the good guys, for sure.
