An Analysis of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War
An Analysis of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War

Author: Mark Fisher

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 79

ISBN-13: 1351353144

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Few works can claim to form the foundation stones of one entire academic discipline, let alone two, but Thucydides's celebrated History of the Peloponnesian War is not only one of the first great works of history, but also the departure point from which the modern discipline of international relations has been built. This is the case largely because the author is a master of analysis; setting out with the aim of giving a clear, well-reasoned account of one of the seminal events of the age – a war that resulted in the collapse of Athenian power and the rise of Sparta – Thucydides took care to build a single, beautifully-structured argument that was faithful to chronology and took remarkably few liberties with the source materials. He avoided the sort of assumptions that make earlier works frustrating for modern scholars, for example seeking reasons for outcomes that were rooted in human actions and agency, not in the will of the gods. And he was careful to explain where he had obtained much of his information. As a work of structure – and as a work of reasoning – The History of the Peloponnesian War continues to inspire, be read and be taught more than 2,000 years after it was written.

The Landmark Thucydides
The Landmark Thucydides

Author: Thucydides

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-04

Total Pages: 760

ISBN-13: 1416590870

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Chronicles two decades of war between Athens and Sparta.

Thucydides, Pericles, and the Idea of Athens in the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides, Pericles, and the Idea of Athens in the Peloponnesian War

Author: Martha Taylor

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-10-26

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1139482793

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Thucydides, Pericles, and the Idea of Athens in the Peloponnesian War is the first comprehensive study of Thucydides' presentation of Pericles' radical redefinition of the city of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Martha Taylor argues that Thucydides subtly critiques Pericles' vision of Athens as a city divorced from the territory of Attica and focused, instead, on the sea and the empire. Thucydides shows that Pericles' reconceputalization of the city led the Athenians both to Melos and to Sicily. Toward the end of his work, Thucydides demonstrates that flexible thinking about the city exacerbated the Athenians' civil war. Providing a thorough critique and analysis of Thucydides' neglected book 8, Taylor shows that Thucydides praises political compromise centered around the traditional city in Attica. In doing so, he implicitly censures both Pericles and the Athenian imperial project itself.

Thucydides
Thucydides

Author: Thucydides

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-03-28

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 0521847745

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A new translation of Thucydides, a foundational text in the history of Western political thought, with extensive student reference material.

Thucydides on Strategy
Thucydides on Strategy

Author: Athanasios G. Platias

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0190696389

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Masterfully crafted and surprisingly modern, "History of the Peloponnesian War" has long been celebrated as an insightful, eloquent, and exhaustively detailed work of classical Greek history. The text is also remarkable for its deep political and military dimensions, and scholars have begun to place the work alongside Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Clausewitz's On War as one of the great treatises on strategy. The perfect companion to Thucydides' impressive History, this volume details the specific strategic concepts at work within the History of the Peloponnesian War and demonstrates, through case studies of recent conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the continuing relevance of Thucydidean thought to an analysis and planning of strategic operations. Some have even credited Thucydides with founding the discipline of international relations. Written by two scholars with extensive experience in this and related fields, Thucydides on Strategy situates the classical historian solidly in the modern world of war.

On Justice, Power & Human Nature
On Justice, Power & Human Nature

Author: Thucydides

Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company Incorporated

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 9780872201699

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Designed for students with little or no background in ancient Greek language and culture, this collection of extracts from The History of the Peloponnesian War includes those passages that shed most light on Thucydides' political theory--famous as well as important but lesser-known pieces frequently overlooked by nonspecialists. Newly translated into spare, vigorous English, and situated within a connective narrative framework, Woodruff's selections will be of special interest to instructors in political theory and Greek civilization. Includes maps, notes, glossary.

Thucydides' War Narrative
Thucydides' War Narrative

Author: Carolyn Dewald

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2006-02-12

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0520930975

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As a sustained analysis of the connections between narrative structure and meaning in the History of the Peloponnesian War, Carolyn Dewald's study revolves around a curious aspect of Thucydides' work: the first ten years of the war's history are formed on principles quite different from those shaping the years that follow. Although aspects of this change in style have been recognized in previous scholarship, Dewald has rigorously analyzed how its various elements are structured, used, and related to each other. Her study argues that these changes in style and organization reflect how Thucydides' own understanding of the war changed over time. Throughout, however, the History's narrative structure bears witness to Thucydides' dialogic efforts to depict the complexities of rational choice and behavior on the part of the war's combatants, as well as his own authorial interest in accuracy of representation. In her introduction and conclusion, Dewald explores some ways in which details of style and narrative structure are central to the larger theoretical issue of history's ability to meaningfully represent the past. She also surveys changes in historiography in the past quarter-century and considers how Thucydidean scholarship has reflected and responded to larger cultural trends.

The Structure of Thucydides' History
The Structure of Thucydides' History

Author: Hunter R. Rawlings III

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-07-14

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1400856574

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In a new and controversial interpretation of the literary structure of Thucydides history of the Peloponnesian War, Hunter Rawlings contends that Thucydides consciously divided the war into two parallel ten-year conflicts with a period of nominal peace in the middle. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Thucydides on the Outbreak of War
Thucydides on the Outbreak of War

Author: S. N. Jaffe

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-03-09

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 0192524747

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The cause of great power war is a perennial issue for the student of politics. Some 2,400 years ago, in his monumental History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides wrote that it was the growth of Athenian power and the fear that this power inspired in Sparta which rendered the Peloponnesian War somehow necessary, inevitable, or compulsory. In this new political psychological study of Thucydides' first book, S.N. Jaffe shows how the History's account of the outbreak of the war ultimately points toward the opposing characters of the Athenian and Spartan regimes, disclosing a Thucydidean preoccupation with the interplay between nature and convention. Jaffe explores how the character of the contest between Athens and Sparta, or how the outbreak of a particular war, can reveal Thucydides' account of the recurring human causes of war and peace. The political thought of Thucydides proves bound up with his distinctive understanding of the interrelationship of particular events and more universal themes.