Rating: 
Summary: First Anti-War, War History
Review: This is an exhausting work, but exhausting in the best meaning of the word. Thucydides does what the few truly great historians can do, he brings to life not only the Pelopponesian war with battles and dates, but also with detailed descriptions of greek life at the time. He goes beyond mere recitation of facts and reaches that ethereal plane of seeing a moral pageant reflected in the terrors of the warfare. At the time, the pelopponesian war, is the first of its kind, where multiple city-states form allegiances and the two great powers, Athens and Sparta vie for supremacy. But beyond the political and military intrigues, Thucydides brings a human face and a tragic toll to this bloody war. Many cite the funeral oration of Pericles as a defining moment of the history, but the part that haunts my memory is the description of the treatment of the prisoners of war by Syracusans, it made my stomach knot at the idea of human cruelty being executed on such a massive scale so far back in our history. The greatest tragedy that Thucydides lays bare in this monumental work, is that this first great assembly of all the powers of men, exploiting political, logistic, military strengths, was only wrought for the destruction of the other.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining and well-written history
Review: This is the most objective and readable contemporary history ever written. Only in classical Greece could a work at once so sympathetic and objective be created. Thucydides was an Athenian and served as a general in their army, but first and foremost he was a Greek. Because of this he did not slander Athens' enemies or feel the need cast the Athenians' actions in a glorious, righteous light. Every chapter shines with brilliance and humanity, particularly the section on the plague which hit Athens when it was already in a crisis. I'm actually tempted to call this 2,000 year old history a page-turner.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Herodotus, but good enough
Review: This was a very interesting and easy book to read concerning this ancient 30-year Greek civil war that was so devastating to the whole of Hellas. Too bad the author dies before being able to complete the work. Reading this made me think how US politicians and rhetoreticians pay lip service to Athenian democracy while in fact this democracy was very different from US democracy and was a democracy that only included Athenian male citizens while women were excluded. Athenian democracy also supported slavery and was abusive to its subject states. Reading this book one learns that the Athenians were the bad guys and that Pericles was a leader who looked out for his peoples interests while disregarding other peoples well being.
Rating:
Summary: The Beginnings of True History
Review: Thucydides earned an honored spot among ancient writers by being one of the first to break with the old ways. Up to his time natural disasters, national defeat and personal tragedies were blamed on the "gods". This remained true even when the writers themselves doubted the existence of those beings. Thucydides took part in the famous war between Athens and Sparta and somehow made the decision to - for the first time - write a factual historical record of the events instead of using legends and tales. He conducted interviews, traveled for first-hand investigation and laid out not only the war but the political and social conditions that surrounded the event.
If one were to judge the work based on the literary quality of the content it would be difficult to award the five stars. But the translator has made the best of an old style of writing that is detailed, pedantic and remorseless with the facts and consequences of mistakes. It is a miracle - and a blessing - that some anonymous scribe in a small room with candle and quill undertook the task of replicating his words for us almost 2,500 years later.
Rating: 
Summary: The Original Man-On-The-Spot
Review: Thucydides fought in the Peloponnesian War and probably attended some of the parliamentary debates in Athens which he so faithfully chronicles. His accounts of the diplomatic manoevring over Corcyria, his narrative of the breakdown of social order, and Pericles funeral oration are immortal. Together with Herodotus, this forms the sourcebook for the critical events of ancient Greek military history. On a whim, however, I have docked the classic master one star, on the utterly prosaic grounds that old Thu's account doesn't actually cover ALL of what is now known as the Peloponnesian War, not only omitting some of the lead-up events but also leaving the reader dangling in suspense at the end. One might think this prosaic, but then again of all the ancient writers, Thucydides was the most prosaic, so I'm sure he wouldn't begrudge this.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Ancient History: International Affairs
Review: Thucydides is one of the great historians of antiquity. He offers a first hand account of the terrible Peloponnesian war that plagued Greece for over thirty-years. Not only does he discuss the war between Athens and Sparta, but also he gives a very informative description of Greek life and history leading up to the war. Thucydides discusses the early war with the Persians and the subsequent power-vacuum left in Greece following the conclusion of the conflict. He discusses the merits of both the Athenian League and their Spartan counter parts, thus remaining objective even though having served as an Athenian general. His knowledge of battles is profound, but more interesting is his discussion on the politics of Greece at the time. He makes great use of political dialogues in order to emphasize important aspects of the conflict and the Grecian political situation. Especially interesting are Pericles' funeral oration, and the Melian dialogue. Both dialogues deal with matters of state, i.e. the good citizen, and realist thought towards nationalist interest. Through Thucydides work we are able to draw numerous parallels from antiquity to modern times. Thucydides has almost perfectly captured current international politics on miniature scale, making observation and study most beneficial to those interested in learning the underlying processes of global affairs. I recommend a close reading of The Peloponnesian War for any student of political science or for anyone interested in Ancient History. A most fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Review: Thucydides is usually accounted the first "real" historian; because of his use of written material, interviews with participants, and scientific objectivity, he set a precedent that would be held as the ideal for all who followed. Thucydides remarks at the beginning of his book that:"...if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other in much the same ways, be repeated in the future." No historian today would claim that the past repeats its self, but, sadly, human nature does. Like some of my fellow reviewers you can see the correlation of the Peloponnesian and Delian leagues with the United Nations and NATO of today. The numerous peace treaties and ambassadorial delegations seem so closely to mirror our present time. This book is at the bedrock of Western Civilization, and must be read to understand the great European conflicts which followed.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful
Review: Thucydides was a classic during the cold war since US was modeled
after US and USSR after Sparta. In Thucydides Sparta wins because
the athenians made the mistake to go beyond the cold war stage
and do actual warfare. That this has not happened in the 20th century is perhaps the legacy of this brightest of strategic
theorists.
Rating:
Summary: A lengthy albeit remarkable book
Review: Thucydides' attention to detail is easily palpable and at times becomes numbing to the reader who is not familiar with the myriad of hellenic city states and peoples who come and go. The author's attempt to create a historical account that is far-reaching and profound is successful. The book, to me, reads as though it it could have been written in almost any time; absent are explicit biases common in early historical writting. The summations of speeches such as those of Pericles and the Mytileneans reveal a striking commentary on what the nature and obligations of a city or empire should be. Parts of Pericles' speech in particular seem almost ahistorical - rife with arguments for the defense of freedom and liberty - and could be grafted into the address of any modern democratic politician. The maps at the end of the book, despite their ancient asthetic, are not helpful in locating many of the regions and smaller cities the book concerns itself with.
Rating:
Summary: A History/Political Science Masterpiece
Review: Thucydides, an Athenian living in the 5th Century BC, writes the history of the Peloponnesian War, a war between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta. It is a must-read for anyone interested in history or Western civilization/thought and, so I have been told, for military strategists. Given that it is the story of a war that took place over 2400 years ago, however, it is probably not for anyone looking for an interesting diversion from the workaday world. For that, in the classical history genre, I would turn to Herodotus who provides a much more lively history, or for military history to Blackhawk Down, or for those interested in the grimmer parts of history, Daniel Judah Goldhagen's book on ordinary Germans' role in the holocaust and the glut of refuting books written in response. Those are better page-turners, so to speak. However, for those who are assigned to read Thucydides in a classroom or for those interested in the classical studies or the origins of Western Civ, you will not regret having read Thucyides. Along with Herodotus' Histories, it is the foundation of modern historical writing and research (i.e., the telling of events from first hand knowledge or from original sources). Both Herodotus and Thucyidides were not above making up speeches out of whole cloth, but the events that they recounted were all based on actual accounts (although Herodotus was more willing to recount seemingly fantastical tenth hand accounts and therefore can be seen as a bridge between the myth-telling of Homer and the more rigorous history of Thucydides). As stated above, Thucydides does obviously make up some of the speeches, but given the recent controversy over the authorized biography of Ronald Reagan, it seems that some modern historians are also guilty of this and Thucydides did his work before academic standards were created to say that this shouldn't be done. Along with an account of the actual events of the War which is most interesting to classicists and military historians (neither of which I am, so I will not comment further on this), Thucydides gives us timeless lessons in politics, the risks of relying on luck and international relations/diplomacy. He also gives us his take on the dangers of too much democracy and mob rule (although he is likely biased on this issue since, although he was a general during the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians voted to banish him after one battle). So, to some up, Thucydides History is not for the casual reader, but is an extremely interesting work and is a must-read for those interested in classical history.
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