Thucydides: The Reinvention of History

If you are reading either or both of the above courses this makes an excellent companion. It gives additional context that cannot be covered in the course collateral - beautifully written and a superb accessory to any serious student or enthusiast.

Kagan's well-written account of Thucydides reaffirms why he is rightly seen as the father of history. Kagan explains how Thucydides gathered his information, how he cross-checked his facts, and how he tried to maintain objectivity, as any modern historian would.

I first encountered old Thuy in my 2nd year at Uni and I have attempted to grasp his intrinsic brilliance ever since.I will say that I am no Classicist or Greek scholar,and people will do well to refer to their local library or Humanities dept of their University to gain access to the "real McCoy" so to speak.I will say however that this is a first rate book by a most distinguished scholar at Harvard and the authority displayed is surely apparent.Perhaps if you read this in conjunction with the original(in translation of course)then you will gain an immeasurable benefit.To highlight an example,look at the Melian Dialogue in the original work and you may perhaps gain an insight into the relevance of this work for today.Not that it is not without its faults,but I am in no way qualified or competent to assess it with any authority.Perhaps more of our politicans should read Thucydidies and Homer and learn a little humility before embarking upon dubious and bloody courses of action.Anyway,enough preaching,buy it,read it and enjoy.

I have read and re-read Donald Kagan’s four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War and, to most who have read that outstanding work, his book on Thucydides will be disappointing. For someone who has not read either that full history of the war or its one-volume condensed version, it is a concise summary of Kagan’s view on the standing of Thucydides as a historian and a critique of his methods. However, large sections of the text are lifted straight from his earlier works with, at most, minor corrections. The Introduction and the Conclusion, apart from being repeats of earlier works and other concerns, have as much to do with Kagan’s own political views as with Thucydides.On a positive note, the nine chapters forming the body of the book set out Kagan’s view that Thucydides was a revisionist who tried to contradict views about the war held by many of his contemporaries. Although Thucydides claimed to be impartial, Kagan shows he was sometimes deliberately misleading in his presentation and that those generally-held views were more likely to be correct than Thucydides’ revisions. These include his attempting to minimise the responsibility of Pericles for starting the Peloponnesian War and proposing a strategy that had to succeed quickly or bankrupt Athens, ignoring the successes of later leaders who abandoned Pericles’ strategy or attributing them as mere chance and minimising the responsibility of Nicias, whose policies followed those of Pericles, for the disaster in Sicily. However, although Kagan provides some background information, these issues were probably better considered in the context of a narrative of the events they relate to, as they were in Kagan’s history of the war, rather than in isolation.On the other hand, the volumes of Kagan’s history of the war were published up to 40 years ago, long before the contributions of more recent researchers. The passages recycled from his earlier works are not modified on account of later interpretations, so the whole does not present a coherent and considered final opinion. The period from the late 1960s to the 2000s was also that when Kagan began to express his defence of history as a search for the truth through detailed and objective research, not just to explain events, but also to provide examples, give warnings and indicate likely developments in human affairs by reference to the past: the approach first adopted by Thucydides. Just as Kagan shows that Thucydides had an agenda, Kagan’s agenda is a plea for politics, wars and diplomacy to be studied as the central themes of history rather than just trivial and short-term compared to the society, economy and geography of the peoples and places studied.Kagan regrets that social and economic history is replacing political history as the proper object for the study of history. His history of the Peloponnesian War is an outstanding contribution to the form of historical enquiry on which he has spent his career. This cut-and-paste consideration of Thucydides is, however, hardly the best support for his advocacy of political history.

Not as good as Kagan's superlative The Peloponnesian War book but only because of the subject matter; wars are, for most I suspect, inherently more exciting than arguing historical fact.The twist here is that Kagan does what Thucydides did to his predecessors; he argues convincingly against the ancient historian's interpretation of the Peloponnesian War, thereby "re-inventing history". Donald Kagan's writing style is both elegant and concise as one who has read The Peloponnesian War might expect. However, if you have not read that then get it, read it and then come back and get this one.

It is a revised edition in some part with the same words and figures of the book "The pelloponesian war". Practically a book focusing only some aspect of the war. Because is smaller more easy to hand!!

Donald Kagan's magisterial history of the Peloponnesian War is recognized as a landmark of classical scholarship. Now, Kagan-one of the most respected classical historians in the world-turns his attention from one of the greatest conflicts in history to the author who so magnificently chronicled it: Thucydides, the first truly modern historian. This study offers readers a remarkable opportunity to experience one great historian engaging another across the centuries, in a work that is at once an engrossing voyage of discovery, a moving tribute, and a revelatory meditation on the practice of history and its value in human affairs.