Rating: 
Summary: What a Landmark!
Review: A completely superlative work! Thucydides wrote, during the infancy of history, a masterful study of the Great War of his time, the 27 year, with one brief interlude, struggle between Athens and Sparta for supremacy of the Greek world. It is a classic that deserves careful study by any student of ancient Greece, war, history or the human condition. Unfortunately it is a work that deals with a complex subject filled with names and allusions obscure to most modern readers. This work , with its extensive background information, dozens of maps and extensive footnotes, makes this classic intelligible to any student. An added bonus is the introduction by Victor Davis Hanson, a classics professor who can write, almost a contradiction in terms.
Rating:
Summary: Best book and version ever
Review: I found this book on sale in a bookstore in Nijmegen, Holland. It looked very appealing, I bought it, took it home with me and waited for several months before I read it. I am not a scholar, nor a historian, I am interested in history and in fact rather than fiction. The splendid appendices gave insight in much of the text and maps are a definite plus. As for the book itself. The further along you get, the more you are drawn into it. It really has the aura of an eye witness account. But somehow Thucydides manages to go beyond mere history and trancend the story into a classic Greek drama, the rise and fall of Athens. By the time the Athean fleet sails for Sicily I realised his very factual style of writing had turned an historic event of over two thousand years ago into harsh everyday reality. Here's a man struggling with depicting a war he was part of, with losses that he himself felt, with the downfall of a country that was his. After reading it, I read Livius. The difference to me is stunning. Whereas Livius writes from a very chauvinistic Roman viewpoint, Thucydides actually tried to write a factual account. Even more stunning that Livius didn't manage objectivity with events hundreds of years ago and Thucydides did with events in his own lifetime. Read it as you would read a newspaper. Recently, I've often seen the book misquoted and its authority misused, suggesting that few people actually read it. Do yourselves a favour, buy it, put it on your bookshelves and for God's sake, read it.
Rating:
Summary: Great presentation
Review: I have to say this is a fantastic presentation of Thucydides although I have not read him in the original Greek and therefore am not qualified to pass judgement on the translation. But I also notice that Victor Hanson provided the bibliography rather than the author and no sources are quoted for the essays at the back and the bibliography is mostly secondary sources. Yes, this book is meant for the masses, but I would prefer an approach more similar to the Penguin Herodotus. Nevertheless, the maps are useful and the book is well worth reading.
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Summary: The place to start studying the Peloponnesian War
Review: I read this edition along with the Hobbes translation (Green, ed.) and despite having read through Thucydides several times before, Thucydides, despite claiming to write a completely objective history, the composition of the work shows through quite a bit. The narrative is not linear, with digressions, flashbacks, and other tropes which makes the book hard to follow at times. In any case, the events of the war are so complex, covering such a long time, and in so many theaters of operation, that there is no single way to give a coherent recounting of the events. All the maps are very clean, freshly rendered and easy to read. In addition to a few omnibus maps in the back matter, there are many smaller maps throughout the book, each having only as many landmarks as are necessary to illuminate the particular passage. This turns out to be particularly helpful. One can find a place like Naupactus, (not obscured by too many dots and words and unclear print) and understand why it was so important for Athens to hold onto. The other editorial matter are also very helpful. Using the index and the notes, the reader can follow the stories of the people, places, and themes invovled. If you are at all concerned about Ancient Greece, or history, this book is worth it, for the maps alone even if for nothing else.
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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.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding edition of a classic - 4.5 stars
Review: Thucydides is yet another classic work that should be required reading. Its depiction of the Peloponnesian war and life in the ancient world is reason enough to read it. This was an important time when the Greek poleis city-states, fresh from their victory over Persia, destroyed any hope of a Greek/Athenian empire and laid the ground for Alexander's conquest. However, even for those uninterested in Greek history, Thucydides is a remarkable read, given its profund insight into war and democracy. The decline and fall of the Athenian Empire is a story rife with lessons for the modern world -- we can see many of our own modern troubles mirrored in ancient Athens. One can see how a democracy fails when its leader follows the mob, as Nicias did, rather than leads the mob, as Pericles did. Thucydides style is sometimes complicated, but reaches wonderful heights in the Pericle's funeral oration and the disaster in Sicily. The only real flaw in the book is that he never finished it. It cuts off abruptly in the 21st year of the war. Thucydides clearly was writing after the war was over, given some of his ominous references to the eventual fate of Hellas. One can only speculate why he never finished his history. The natural contrast to this work is the History of Herodotus, who wrote shortly before Thucydides on the Persian Wars. Thucydides style is a lot drier but more objective. He is very detailed, sometimes too much so (the book is very long). To his credit, he is far more discriminating than Herodotus in finding truthful accounts and leaving out colorful myths. He has an astounding 100+ speeches transcribed. However, he occasionally assumes that the reader understand his frame of reference and spend little time describing the culture and lands of Hellas -- a shortcoming compared to Herodotus. This edition is outstanding. It is THE edition you should buy (I wish they had one of the Histories). There are informative appendices written by various scholars, the translation is lively and clear, there are copious footnotes and, most importantly, tons of maps. I was never confused as to what was going on. I have to deduct half a star for the incompleteness of the work and the somewhat incomplete description of the Hellenic world. But this book comes with an unqualified recommendation. Note: Since the Persian wars preceeded the Pelopennesian, I would recommend reading Herodotus first.
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Summary: Comprehensive but not Compact!
Review: Thucydides' "The Peloponnesian War" is one of the most important pieces of literature of the West. It's a book that gets less credit than it deserves, most likely because it's boring. But it's important. Anyway, I digress. I highly recommend that you get the Robert Strassler version of this book if you need to get this work, or have a good heart and just want to read it for deeper understanding of the Greeks. Why? I'll tell you why. Strassler and crew made this book very easy to interact with through a few routes. First of all, they nicely divided the book up by its natural, authorial sections, providing white space between paragraphs to make reading come more easily. They used a nice large font so that your eyes don't get too tired as you pour over this work. If you get lazy or just need some help with a passage, Strassler includes a synopsis of every paragraph right next to it in the margin. There is a comprehensive index, too. Finally, lots of visuals are provided to help you get what's going on. This is a BIG book. This monolith is easily 5 pounds, and very wide and large. It's about the size of a typical college textbook. However, all the stuff crammed into it really makes it worth its weight in paper, at the very least. If you're going to get "The Peloponnesian War," go all out and get this version.
Rating:
Summary: Classic history and fine editing
Review: What a magnificent job the editor did on this already great work. In addition to Thucydide's classic history, the editor added numerous maps, notes and other explainations to help the modern reader in following the Peloponnesian War narrative.
Thucydides is of course necessary reading for any historian whether at an undergraduate or graduate level. He established a standard of verification of facts and actions, unlike Herodotus whose great work included much myth and commonly accepted incorrect information. Thucydides had the admittedly added advantage of being an observer to a vast amount of the goings on in during this period being himself a soldier and then a general in the Athenian army.
Fine reading and, again, an excellent editing of the original work.
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