Posted on 10/15/2005 4:22:57 PM PDT by Valin
What the First World War was for Europe, the Peloponnesian War was for the ancient Greeks. It was also their Napoleonic Wars and their American Civil War. The protracted, ruinous conflict between Athens and Sparta, which dragged on for nearly 30 years (431 B.C. to 404 B.C.), prefigured, in one way or another, nearly every major conflict to come, right up the present war on terror.
The "war like no other," as Thucydides called it, continues to fascinate because it always seems pertinent, and never more so than in Victor Davis Hanson's highly original, strikingly contemporary retelling of the superpower confrontation he calls "a colossal absurdity."
In his capable hands, the past, more often than not, seems almost painfully present. Thucydides, the great historian of the war, is described as a kind of embedded reporter. The Athenians, relying on local populations under Spartan rule to greet them as liberators, never encountered quite the enthusiasm they anticipated, and the imperial assumptions behind "Athenianism," which Hanson calls "the Western world's first example of globalization," suggest uncomfortable comparisons.
Hanson, whose books on classical warfare include "The Western Way of War" and "The Wars of the Ancient Greeks," does not harp on this theme. He directs most of his attention to the war itself, the way it was fought and the profound changes in methods and psychology that took place over time.
His ingeniously organized narrative proceeds chronologically, but also thematically. The chapter "Disease," for example, focuses on the four-year period after the first Spartan invasions, when plague overtook Athens, crowded with refugees from the countryside, killing off one-fourth to one-third of the population. Hanson explores the military implications of these losses, but also the psychological toll. He suggests that mass death set the stage for the later brutalities of the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Those who do not know history are doomed to be ignorant, if they are lucky.
So9
NY Timee? I think I remember that guy. ;-)
LOL!
When I was enrolled in Naval War College, Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian Wars" was a major work to be read and discussed for ramifications on modern warfare. Especially the forming, maintenance and strategic value of coalitions, and shifts in the character and goals of the participants....that occur over a protracted conflict (not necessarily 30 years). Some works, and the lessons they can convey about historical "lessons learned", are timeless.
SSDD
Bump
I can't wait to read this one.
I think the Peloponnesian Wars really are a lesson for our times. For example, the Spartan war effort that finally beat Athens was largely funded by Persia. I think the war was largely a draw until then.
For all that is written about the suffering of the Athenians, Sparta suffered badly as well. The armies were actually well matched, as I recall, but the forces of Athens were spread all over the Agean, the Eastern Med. from Sicily to Cyprus, and the Black Sea. A scattering of forces that was to prove fatal.
Or at least, that's my amateur, studied only for fun, take on the matter.
What about Clinton? It was a long war, enough for several presidents.
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Read a little Thucydides and you will see.
Failing that, read a little of WThucydides ill Durant's commentary on Thucydides.
You don't need to read it all to answer your question.
So you would recommend Thucydides rather than VDH? Probably a silly question, but courious to your answer.
Must be a reason that name keeps coming up and has been coming up all through history. Might be something to it.
Thucydides comes pretty cheap in paper back.
I also referenced Will Durant. His "The Life Of Greece" offers insight to the times and contrast to the present and is easy, already digested by his great historian mind. One of the reasons I like Newt the history prof/congressman is because he references Will Durant.
I have never read any thing of VDH except his extensive columns available here on FR.
Most interesting.
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