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Posted on 10/22/2005 3:27:19 PM PDT by baseball_fan
WHY should a distinguished classical scholar like Victor Davis Hanson provide us with yet another book about the Peloponnesian War? He is in no doubt: he is writing a tract for the times. "Perhaps never," he insists, "has the Peloponnesian War been more relevant to Americans than to us of the present age."
This Greek civil war, between Athens and her allies and Sparta and her allies, lasted 27 years, from 431 to 404 B.C., and ended with the capitulation of Athens and its occupation by Sparta. Its interest for Hanson is in comparing Athens to the United States. At the outset of the war, Athens was the richest city in the world and, within Greece, the sole superpower, with an omnipotent navy. Athens was also a democracy, anxious to export her political system and way of life throughout the Greek world, if necessary by force. The war was fought because Sparta, a military oligarchy, feared Athenian imperialism and cultural dominance, and persuaded other Greek cities to join with it in an attempt to cut Athens down to size. Hanson sees the United States as sharing Athenian hubris and inviting nemesis by trying to export democracy to countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. The fact that Hanson himself supports American policy gives his book an ironic twist.
...snip
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Is this Hanson - or Johnson the reviewer - talking?
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The fact that the New York Times is a Leftist/crypto-Marxist/anti-American propaganda organ gives this article an ironic twist.
Thanks for posting this, the Peloponnesian War is one of my favorite parts of history. I recall once having read a comparison to WW2, with Britain the democratic sea power as Athens. Nazi Germany the autocratic land power as Sparta, and the USSR as Macedon.
"Enemies hated Athens as much for what it was as for what it did."*How like America's enemies today.
"After Athenian envoys and the Spartan king Archidamus both offered sober and reasoned explanations of why war...was a bad idea, the dense ephor Sthenelaidas...shouted out a few slogans about Spartan pride and power. The Spartan military assembly then immediately voted for war. They seemed to be swayed...by emotion rather than reason"*Swayed by emotion rather than reason--how like the decadent, anti-American Left.
Hanson, Victor Davis. A War Like No Other. New York: Random House, 2005, p. 15.
"Hanson sees the United States as sharing Athenian hubris and inviting nemesis by trying to export democracy to countries like Iraq and Afghanistan."
Absolutely ridiculous.
Athens wanted tribute for providing the defense shield.
The parallel would be if we were shaking down our NATO members.
Whoever made this comparison is a moron.
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bump for later
Hanson has keen insights. He presupposes knowledge of Thucydides and other historians and offers a chronology of the war only in synopsis, at the end of Chapter 1, pp. 31-34. I think he has done a very good job.
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amazing they'd let Paul Johnson be the reviewer!
I certainly wouldn't expect anything objective or intelligent from the New York Times--any more than I would have expected objectivity or intelligence from Pravda under the Soviet Union or some German publication under the Nazi regime.
The intelligent mind can hardly deign to forbear a condescending chuckle that anyone would actually read that propaganda rag--let alone spend money on it.
"Who is Paul Johnson? I know nothing about him. I've never heard of him."
Johnson is an incredibly prolific English writer of popular history. You would like him. His writing is first rate, he is conservative,and he LOVES Ronald Reagan. He is not as fastidious about his footnotes and minor details as the average historian, perhaps, but he tells a wonderful story and gets the broad sweep right. I find him pretty accurate about the important issues.
Thanks for informing me about Paul Johnson. I will look for his writings.
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A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
New York Times | October 13, 2005 | William Grimes
Posted on 10/15/2005 4:22:57 PM PDT by Valin
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