Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West Cover
Podcast Mentions

Persian Fire The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

Tom Holland

In 480 B.C., Xerxes, the King of Persia, led an invasion of mainland Greece. Its success should have been a formality. For seventy years, victory—rapid, spectacular victory—had seemed the birthright of the Persian Empire. In the space of a single generation, they had swept across the Near East, shat...

Podcasts 1
Quotes 7
The Rest Is History

The hosts referenced the book several times, noting that its author had written about the challenges of understanding the ancient world and the alienness of that era. They highlighted the blurb emphasizing the Persian invasion’s pivotal role for the West, presenting it as a little‑known but significant history work. The overall tone was positive, treating the title as an important resource for listeners interested in early world empires.

Highly Recommended

Episode: 334: Athens and the Birth of Democracy

Matt said he had written about the topic in his book Persian Fire, indicating it covered the challenges of understanding the ancient world.

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Right. So I wrote about this in Persian Fire.

Episode: 334: Athens and the Birth of Democracy

Matt said he had written about the alienness of the ancient world in his book Persian Fire.

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I wrote about this in Persian Fire.

Episode: 185. Agatha Christie

They mentioned advertising a book titled Persian Fire as a chance to showcase the author's work on Cyrus.

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This is a brilliant opportunity for you to advertise your book of Persian Fire. Thank you.

Episode: 99. Thermopylae & Salamis Episode 2

The hosts highlighted the blurb of Tom Holland's littleknown history book Persian Fire, noting its focus on the Persian invasion and its significance for the West.

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Had the Greeks been defeated at Salamis, not only would the West lost its first struggle for independence and survival, but it is unlikely that there would have ever been such an entity as the West at all. So says the blurb for a little-known history book called Persian Fire by Tom Holland.

Tom your book Persian fire is called the subtitle is what is it the first world war and the first world empire and the battle for the west and the battle for the west.

Episode: 98. Thermopylae & Salamis Episode 1

Tom Holland promoted his own popularhistory book, Persian Fire, describing it as a backdrop for the Iranian invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq war.

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and I when I when I rate potion fire which I'm shamelessly going to plug no you should my book on this it is the popular history on this but it's kind of you know you have to write a blurb and I rate Persian fire in the backdrop to the invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq war

the blurb that I wrote for Persian fire in the fifth century BC a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states the superpower was Persia

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