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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Comment: The good: The first part of this book reads like a historical novel. Thucydides includes long,
detailed speeches that he had either heard first hand, had related to him, or has paraphrased based
on the circumstances surrounding the speech. While some of the speeches are more accurate then
others they do help the reader understand what was going on in the minds of the people at the time.
They also help to break up what can sometimes be a monotonous account of the war.

The
Bad: As alluded to above, the beginning of the book is filled with speeches. There are fewer and
fewer speeches as the book progresses, until by chapter 8, they are omitted altogether. This
omission of speeches does make the book a little dry, and tough to get through. I found that I
couldn't read the last part of the book for as long a period of time as I could the beginning, and
my breaks became more frequent.

The book ends in 411 BC, 7 years before the war ended.
One can only imagine how great an accomplishment this book might have been, had Thucydides been able
not only to write about the entire war, but had also been able to finish the book with the detail
that he started it.

The Ugly: The edition I read was the Penguin Classics edition,
while the book may be a classic, the Penguin edition was far from one. The print was terrible and
uneven. The chapter numbers on the left boarder of the page, where fine until they hit triple
digits, and then the '1' was either half printed or not there at all. Several pages where so poorly
'inked' that you could barely make out the letters.

The maps were useless except for
the one on Attica. As another reviewer suggested, pay a little more and get a better quality
edition.

Overall though this was a very good book.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Greatest Of All Greek Historians
Comment: The greatest of all Greek historians was the Athenian general Thucydides (455-400 B.C.E.).
Thucydides' classic work, "History Of The Peloponnesian War", provides us with the historical
framework for 5th century Greece, a golden age of intellectual achievement and creativity rarely
equaled in human history. This history is by far the best account of the bitter war between Athens
and Sparta as well as the only surviving contemporary record of the rise of the Athenian empire.
Thucydides as a master story teller doesn't just cover the battle scenes, he records the great
political speeches of Pericles, leader of Athens, and Lysander leader of Sparta with great acumen.
He is recognized as the first historian to actually go and get eyewitness accounts, visit
battlefieilds and research documents and records. This work took him over 20 years and it shows!

The lessons he teaches about imperial over reaching and unreasonable peace settlements
are prescient today as they were during his times. President Woodrow Wilson, read this book on his
voyage across the Atlantic to the Versailles Peace Conference and vociferously fought the other
Allies in making unreasonable demands of the Germans. Wilson learned the dangers that the world
would be placed in by backing the Germans into a corner politically and economically from Thucydides
book.

I recommend this timeless classic to anyone who is interested in political
philosophy, and history. I also recommend you read it with David Cartwright's "A Historical
Commentary On Thucydides.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A Greek War Classic
Comment: "History of the Peloponnesian War" is Thucyidides' account of the 27-year war between Athens and
Sparta which began in 431 BC. The Penguin edition is just over 600 pages and can be very slow for a
modern-day reader, but it is worth the effort as much of it is still amazingly practical, especially
in today's wartime world. Unfortunately Thucydides' account ends 7 years before the end of the war
(which Sparta won, but in a rather Pyrrhic victory) so be prepared for some disappointment at the
conclusion of a long read.

The narration of the book is rather dry at points (which
is understandable in that it was written 2400+ years ago), but Thucydides' summations of the major
speeches at high points of the war are excellent. His recap of the speech made by the Athenian
general Pericles, appealing to his people for continuation of the battle at a point when their
morale was very low, reads like it could have been taken from a present-day newspaper within the
past few years.

Be prepared to have to give some effort to get through this book, but
you'll be better off for doing so.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Unparalleled
Comment: I will spare a full-blown review. But if you have the extra money or could easily afford it, I would
recommend the newer more expensive edition of this book with the introduction by Victor Davis
Hanson. There, you will have maps to your hearts content, including chapter summaries. This edition
lacks in both of these areas. As a result, this edition gets 4 stars, while the history written by
Thucydides is beyond measure.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A milestone, and recurrent justifications ....
Comment: "History of the Peloponnesian War" is, superficially, merely an account of a war that happened
centuries ago, the Peloponnesian War, between Athenas and Sparta. Of course, you might think that
the subject is trivial to you. After all, how important can a book like that be?. Well, if you were
to think that, you would be enormously mistaken.

To start with, this book is a milestone you need
to be aware of. Thucydides, its author, is very possibly the first modern historian. He tried to
explain the causes of the Peloponnesian War, without reducing its complexity by saying that the gods
had motivated it. Thucydides doesn't follow the easy path; instead, he searches those causes in
human nature, and in power. He doesn't weave tales, but tries to write History.

It is rather
astonishing how objective this Athenian was when he analyzed the war, and all that happened
immediately before it. He examines methodically many events, paying special attention to facts. The
author also gives his opinion from time to time, but he doesn't judge whether an action is good or
evil: he merely shows that those that have power can use it as they see fit. Due to that, Thucydides
is called by many the first realist theoretician. I was especially taken aback by how well he
expresses his ideas regarding the fact that "power makes right" in the Melian debate. I don't agree
with him, but I cannot deny that he makes a powerful case, and that his point of view is shared
nowadays by many noteworthy thinkers.

It is important to point out that in "History of the
Peloponnesian War" you will find a painstaking account of many things that actually happened, but
also some speeches that weren't made by the actors, but could have been made by them. To explain
that more clearly: Thucydides wrote some political dialogues and monologues that allow us to
understand some aspects of the conflict (and many of his ideas) better. The introduction to this
edition also highlights that the author sometimes made up some of the speeches (from the data he
had), and was present when others were pronounced. My favorite speech is the one made by Pericles,
in honor of the men who died during the war. In that discourse, he explains why those men fought and
died to defend Athens, and what Athens meant not only for Athenians but also for Greece.

This
book isn't easy to read, but it is well-worth the effort. The translation is quite good, so that
will make your task a little easier. If you don't feel like reading this book all at once, try to
read it little by little. The results will be the same, but you won't feel dismayed by the need of
finishing it immediately.

Also, if you can, try to relate some of Thucydides themes to our modern
world. You will find that easier that you might think, and it will make you pay more attention to
what you are reading. You are likely to be very surprised, for example, at how similar some of
nowaday's justifications for taking advantage of power without paying attention to justice are to
those that Thucydides already made a long time ago. On the whole, I highly recommend this book
:)

Belen Alcat

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