The Peloponnesian War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Greece [Hardcover]

Nigel Bagnall (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312342152 | ISBN-13: 978-0312342159 | Publication Date: July 25, 2006 | Edition: First Edition

The Peloponnesian War, the epic struggle between Athens and Sparta, occupies a vital part in military history because of the enormous military and political changes it inspired. In this brilliant book, Sir Nigel Bagnall sets out to analyze and clarify the war, describing in compelling detail the events that led up to it.  His meticulous attention to historical context offers a refreshing contrast to traditional accounts.
            The conflict lasted from 431 to 404 B.C., until the confederation led by Sparta finally conquered Athens and her allies. Bagnall dissects the complex relationship between the two states and closely studies their political conduct in the run-up to war, offering a riveting account of the strategy and tactics involved.
He also outlines its innovations and lessons, which would have enormous military repercussions for future generations. These include the importance of having clear politico-strategic objectives, the interplay of maritime and land operations, and the problems of achieving cohesion in an alliance in which all the participants see themselves as fellow citizens.
The Peloponnesian War is an important book that shines new light on an always relevant subject.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bagnall (The Punic Wars, 2005), a former British army chief of the general staff, completed this rigorous study of ancient Greece's 27-year civil war just before his death in 2002. A seminal event in ancient history, the Peloponnesian War pitted the two great Greek rivals, democratic Athens and authoritarian Sparta, in what Bagnall calls "a fearful, self-destructive war." The conflict, precipitated by Athens' lust for Greek hegemony, quickly settled into a stalemate—"an elephant versus a whale"—because neither Sparta, a land power, nor Athens, a naval power, had a clear strategy for victory. Sparta and her allies finally prevailed by severing Athens' supply lines and starving the city-state into submission. In dense prose, Bagnall captures the Greeks' self-destructive madness. Though the action occasionally slows, Bagnall is at his best when painting in-depth portraits of the major players, like Pericles, and when dissecting the endless battles in far-flung theaters from Asia Minor to Sicily. He concludes with a brief survey of the lessons learned and their contemporary relevance. While much of this ground has been covered, students and enthusiasts of ancient Greece and military history will welcome this excellent perspective on a watershed event. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

For 27 years (431-404 B.C.E.) mainland Greece, the coast of Asia Minor, and large parts of the central Mediterranean were ravaged as alliances headed by Athens and Sparta engaged in a nearly suicidal conflict. All of the major city-states of the mainland took part, and the so-called overseas Greeks in Sicily were sucked in. The Persians, still smarting from their defeats earlier in the century, constantly meddled in and manipulated both sides. Bagnall, who ended his military career as chief of general staff in London, died in 2002 just after completing this work, which is essentially a military history of the war, giving short shrift to culture and politics. Bagnall devotes almost half of the book to the Persian wars that preceded the Peloponnesian War. Once he gets down to that struggle, he provides a cogent and easily decipherable account of a complex and often confusing conflict. Specialists in military history will find this work particularly useful, but lay readers with a general knowledge of classical history will also find it a worthwhile read. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312342152
• ISBN-13: 978-0312342159
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Senior General Gives an Insight Others Lack, August 12, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Peloponnesian War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Greece (Hardcover)

Ths history of western civilization really begins with the Greeks. Unfortunately also with the Greeks begins the tradition of civil wars, although Athens and Sparta might be considered as separate semi-independent states. The war, when looked at in detail bears a lot of common points with more modern wars:

For one thing, the continual wars meant that by the end both Athens, Sparta and the other city states were greatly damaged. Minor wars continued into the next century for about 70 years, then came Alexander.

Although this war is commonly called the Peloponnesian War, it's more proper name is the Second Peloponnesian War. As with the world wars, the first was not decisive.

Another point worth mentioning is that the Peloponneisan war began when a couple of allies of Athens and Sparta up along the Adriatic Sea began fighting. This is not too far from Sarajevo, where World War I began, and where the Bosnians, Croatians, etc. recently fought.

Finally, this was is the first where a major book was written to give the history of the war. This is the HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR by Thucydides.

The author of this book was a high ranking general in the British Army. As such, he brings an insight to the war that is lacking in many of the other books. Highly Recommended.[...]

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars insightful meticulous look at a key pivotal moment in history, August 13, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Peloponnesian War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Greece (Hardcover)

This is an insightful meticulous look at a key pivotal moment in history, the twenty-seven year (with some interim periods of peace during the period) war between democratic Athens and totalitarian Sparta for supremacy of the Mediterranean. The work can stand alone but appears to be a wonderful companion piece to Nigel Bagnall's Punic War treatise and not as coffee table book ends, but as an insightful pair that armchair historians will appreciate. Though aimed at military historical aficionados, the late Mr. Bagnall goes into immense at times excruciating (at least to this reviewer) detail of what happened and to a degree why. For instance, readers get a microscopic look at how the Sparta blockade worked to cut off Athenian supply lines in spite of the latter having naval superiority. Most interesting is the lessons learned from this Greek tragedy that apply today as the Athenian democratic leaders forced the confrontation in an attempt to insure the dominance in the region against their rival (much different than what is taught in school). Clearly targeting a specific audience, the PELOPONNESIAN WAR is a well written dissertation on a critical relevant period that impacted the western world we know today.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars timeless precepts of war, August 5, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Peloponnesian War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Greece (Hardcover)

Bagnall reminds us in this lively history of a long ago war that there are timeless precepts in warmaking. He describes the myriad Greek city states and how they rallied magnificently to draw with and then defeat the Persians. But we also see an interminable fratricidal conflict within the Hellenes.

Unlike most history books, which are written by professional historians, Bagnall warns us upfront that he is not. Instead, he writes from the vantage of a professional soldier that he was for most of his life. Consequently, the book has frequent allusions between events in those distant days and those of the First and Second World Wars and subsequently into the Cold War. This is given at several levels. Strategic, operational and tactical. He does not explicitly say this in his narrative. But the analysis he gives us might well have come from a kreigspeil (wargame) that a bunch of NATO officers took part in.

At the tactical level, he compares the Persian and occasional Greek cavalry and what they could accomplish with modern tank forces. A close analogy. We are also reminded that "train hard to fight easy" was true then and now. And that suprise and deception can often still be the greatest advantages.

Thoughtfully, the book has several good maps of the theatre of operations. The only lack is that perhaps some of the battles could have been shown in extra maps. For those readers unfamiliar with the fractal Greek archipelago and the eastern Med, there might be constant to-and-fro from the text to the main maps, as you try to follow the battle descriptions.

On an aside, do you also read science fiction? Jack McDevitt wrote a wonderful "A Talent for War". Set in the far future of spacefaring humans going to war against a large alien empire. The latter is modelled on the Persians. While the humans are largely divided into small planet states, aka. the Greeks. And the narrative explicitly harks back to the Peloponnesian War.