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Summary: A soulmate to the American Founders from 2700 years ago
Review: The Classic Greeks created intellectual and cultural innovations in human associations that have had lasting impact on human society. One was the concept of democracy, a system of governance, "of the people, by the people, and for the people". Another was personal liberty - which according to Prof. Rufus Fears, is present today only in those nations whose political systems have received influences by the the ancient Greek model. Another contribution was the concept of writing an accurate and objective account of history - epitomized by Thucydides's Pelopponesian War. As cited in the introduction, Thucydides was proud that he had written his history "not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time". Here, along with Herodotus, is the basic concept that underlies the work of all contemporary professional historians. Pericles' Funeral Oration alone is worth many times the small price of this paperback book. Extracts of his evocation of the
Athenian Democracy sound as though they came from the U.S. Founding Fathers, not 2700 years ago:
"[Our] administration favors the many ionstead of the few;p this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences . . . ". This superb edition combines a lucid translation with many conveniences, such as capsule summaries in the margin, perfect for browsing, maps, sketches of Greek vessels, extensive index, conforming time tables among contemporary cultures and much more.
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Summary: Sets the standard
Review: The way this book was set out should set the standard for how books of this nature are organized. The ready accesibility of mapsand the paragraph summaries in the margins made this book especialy easy to read and comprehend. My only wish is that in the future books like Ceasar's conquest of Gaul are issued in editions similar to this.
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Summary: Sets the standard
Review: The way this book was set out should set the standard for how books of this nature are organized. The ready accesibility of mapsand the paragraph summaries in the margins made this book especialy easy to read and comprehend. My only wish is that in the future books like Ceasar's conquest of Gaul are issued in editions similar to this.
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Summary: The Definitive Edition
Review: This book presents a wonderful way to read Thucydides. While the introduction and appendices can be quite helpful to the non-specialist, the edition's greatest strengths are its translation and its maps. Crawley's is truly the definitive English translation, doing justice to Thucydides' majestic, albeit sometimes dense, prose. At the same time the maps make reading it a real pleasure. The Peloponnesian War ranged all across the Greek world, and most editions force you to constantly flip back to a few small and confusing maps in a feeble attempt to follow it. This volume entirely relieves you of that burden, removing all obstacles to the enjoyment and appreciation of this classic. For those further interested in Thucydides and the war he recounts, I highly recommend Donald Kagan's four-volume analysis of the Peloponnesian War. An up-to-date, thoroughly scholarly work, it is also very accessible to the non-expert and well-written to boot. For expanded views and interpretations of the war, as well as an evaluation of Thucydides himself, pick up any one of his volumes.
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Summary: The place to start studying the Peloponnesian War
Review: This edition of Thucydides is the right source to begin a study of the Peloponnesian War. The appendices and margin notes, and the multitude of maps, conveniently located in the text to minimize page-flipping, allow the reader to easily follow Thucydides account of this brutal, multi-theater war. A note on the maps: I vehemently disagree with the reviewer who claimed they distracted the reader. I found, with my limited knowledge of Hellenic geography (and I have sailed those waters myself) that the maps were invaluable. I can't imagine reading Thucydides without a visual reference -- and in this edition, that reference is built-in. Thucydides' account is essential reading for any student of politics (comparative or otherwise), military history, strategy, oration, leadership... have I left anything out? What makes Thucydides even more compelling is that he was not some ashen academic. Rather, he was an Athenian general who fought in this very war, and was exiled for his failure to prevent Brasidas' capture of Amphipolis. He writes of Athens' successes and failures with an admirable detachment and impartiality, despite the fact that he knows his beloved home will go down in the end. Of course, the history is incomplete, but Strassler's epilogue nicely sums up the end of the war and its geopolitical impact through Alexander the Great's vast empire. My only regret in having read this book is that I am now spoiled, and will pine for Touchstone books to develop a "Landmark Herodotus," and other similar editions of vital histories.
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Summary: Brilliant
Review: This exposition of Thucycdides history of the Pelopennesian War stands apart as something of real value in the canon of recent translations. Lucid, clear, well-planned and thought out the translator shows a deep understanding of contemporary Athenian history as well as exploding fishcake the evolution and development of the war. I would wholeheartedly recommend this translation to anyone wishing to gain a more indepth and expanded picture of the tensions that led to the clash between the Spartans and Athenians which ultimately led to the downfall of a great classical empire.
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Summary: All is Fair in.....
Review: This is a review of Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War rather than Strassler's edition of it, as many of the other reviews more or less are. But hats off to Mr Strassler! He should receive an award, a salary increase, a villa on the Riviera...Something commensurate with his painstaking and infinitely helpful notes and elaborations and maps, maps, maps!-Now I know where everything is. The previous editions of Thucydides I've read were rather scanty on maps (i.e., They didn't have any.) All readers of this edition owe Strassler a bundle for making us more successful readers of an author who, at times, can be a bit on the difficult, if not to say inscrutable, side. What do we have to learn from Thucydides? As several reviwers have pointed out, Thucydides intended his opus as a work for the ages. But what were "the ages" supposed to glean from this first thorough account of war in the Western world?... Why men go to war? How to prevent war? How to be successful in war? What it means to go to war?...Just what did he intend? Nobody really knows the answer to the question. But I've read the work several times (never with a clearer understanding than after fnishing the Strassler edition) and have some ideas that might prove helpful. First off, one thing Thucydides almost certainly meant by declaring that his work was for the ages was that war is a permanent condition of mankind. Man has always and will always go to war. It's part of what we would call human nature or (if we wanted to be upscale about it), man's genetic make-up. This means that man is not, as Aristotle famously intoned, the rational animal, but irrational to the core. But, still, what does this really mean? The deepest impression I've always taken away from Thucydides was how moved, how liberated, how emboldened, indeed how festive the people were when they learned of an imminent war. What is this feeling, and why do people react to what, one way or another, is going to bring mayhem and slaughter into the world? In Book Six, concerning the Athenian attack on Syracuse, which Nicias (the Athenian General) and those Athenians with any military insight at all regarded as the naval equivalent of the charge of the light brigade (or would have thought of it in those terms, if the British had been around to tell them about it at the time), Nicias makes a famous speech before the Athenians, rationally explaining all the reasons that the expedition would prove disastrous. As recorded in these pages, however, Nicias' speech had the opposite of the intended effect..."Everyone FELL IN LOVE with the enterprise." ...So, eventually, the defeated Athenians ended up being held in quarries near Syracuse for eight months under the most extreme conditions before being sold as slaves. Nicias was executed. Thucydides says,"This was the greatest Hellenic achievement of any in this war,or, in my opinion, in Hellenic history; at once most glorious to the victors, and most calamitous to the conquered (i.e., the Athenians)." I think one of the lessons, the most important to me, to take away from Thucydides is that love (that "many splendored thing") can be horribly, horribly dangerous and destructive. What is it that the Nazi soldiers felt toward their Fuhrer, or the Chinese toward Mao, or the Confederate soldiers toward General Lee?---LOVE: a grand, noble emotion...The grandest, the most noble...Thucydides understood more amount human nature than many a philosopher. He reached his conclusions from what people did, rather than ruminating about them from secluded groves. The most important thing I have learned from reading him is a different level of introspection. When the band plays The Star Spangled Banner now (as when I was watching the Australian Olympics) and my heart leaps inside me and tears come quickly to the corners of my eyes....I stand back and look at myself and wonder...Is this the way the Athenians felt? What is this sudden whirlwind of feeling, and what sort of acts could it lead me to commit?...What is my nature?
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Summary: outstanding job
Review: This is an easy to read translation of the Greek historian. Mr. Strassler has done an A+ job of making the history easy to read. There are many first rate maps of Greece, Sicily and the other areas of the Pelopanessian war. The summaries of each paragraph of the book are brilliant and very clear when Thucydides is not always the easiest to comprehend. If there are any faults to the book they are the faults of Thucydides who is occasionally confusing and disorganized. The essays at the back of the book about Athens and Sparts and their social customs are first rate and very helpful. I enjoyed this book very much and give it the highest recommendation possible.
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Summary: A War to Learn From
Review: This is an excellent book, although it is hard to follow. The numerous maps and side bar comments are an enormous help. This book will help the reader learn about war, and the fickle nature of war and leadership in war. Could Athens have won? Yes, but poor leadership and fate decided otherwise. Should Athens have won? The author forces the reader to admit that Athens was not so good and Sparta was not so bad; thus, it is hard for the reader to choose one or the other as a favorite. The real winners were the Persians who carefully kept the war going through various devices. Any reader of ancient history will enjoy this true work of art.
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Summary: If you own one book on Thucydides, make sure it's this one.
Review: This is the best way for the non-scholar to approach Thucydides. This volume has it's own built in atlas! Every town,village or city mentioned is indexed with one of the books maps! There's almost a map on every other page. Every reference in the text is explained. The only problem is that all you get is Thucydides. If you want a modern history of this war, get Donald Kagan's history of the Peloponnesian war. It's an excellent history and makes a nice set with The Landmark Thucydides.
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