Ernest Gann has taken an historical event of the highest drama and turned it into fiction of high quality [in "The Antagonists"]. General Flavius Silva and Eleazar ben Yair are the antagonists of the title, and they are worthy of each other. Flavius is supremely confident in the might of Rome; Eleazar has firm faith in the power of Jahweh….

In this age, when there are few ideals that seem worth dying for (or living for, either!) it may be difficult to enter into the spirit that created Masada, or the Crusades or the Revolution. The bitter, seemingly irrational hatreds that are now tearing the mid-East asunder are equally hard to understand. It is this spirit, however, that Gann is investigating and he does it well.

There are so many modern parallels between his characters and today's world that it would be tedious to point them out.

Charles...