Customer Reviews

The Peloponnesian War

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Thucydides edited by Terry Wick comes from an older translation that has a rather good reputation. I found that this version was easier to read than the esteemed 'landmark' edition (which has summaries, pictures, and maps), because there is more text and less distraction! Not much room in the margins, though, unfortunately. All in all, this translation is literal and generally quite good -- a good choice for studying or pleasure. However, most people I've spoken to have LOVED the landmark, so I also do not hesitate to suggest it.

The text itself will drag in places if you are not completely gung-ho for everything about war. However, contained within are a lot of remarkable insights about the human condition which have remained stable for thousands of years. Well worth the struggle.

I read this years ago as a young soldier. It was required reading for cavalry officers in my regiment. I thought I would load it up on the Kindle and read it again with the benefit of 25 years experience. The text is, of course, marvelous. However, the formatting is awful. Sentence breaks don't line up, but rather break at odd intervals through the page. It makes reading considerably less enjoyable. If there is a way for me to repair this I hope someone will let me know. Otherwise - needs work is the best I can say.

Contrary to statements by other reviewers, I can report that this text is properly formatted, at least on a Kindle 3. The lines are occasionally short, but only because the following word is long, and Kindle can not break and hyphenate words. That said, I find it very legible.

A serious student will be disappointed by the absence of book and section numbers, the standard way of making reference to passages in this classic text.

I bought this for a few pennies to have on my Kindle; it would not have otherwise made it onto my purchase list for paper books. On the Kindle it was an enjoyable and enlightening read. Previous customer reviews give ample detail regarding its significance and its relevance to modern times.

Read in conjunction with The Odyssey or The Iliad, it's easy to see how many of the battles fought between Athens, Sparta, and their surrogates could have become epic tales and poems in their own right. The history of the Peloponnesian War almost acts as a historical counterweight and literary jumping off point for more deeply appreciating the Homeric poems.

It is an amazing and well written factual history that adds another dimension to the fictional literature of ancient Greece.

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 storyteller does not 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.

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily 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."

I had to order this book for a class. It has been the best so far in all the books we have had to read for that class. Shipping was fantastic! The book was in very good condition and the price was good also.

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 storyteller does not 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.

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily 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."

Every 2nd line of the text of this book is broken in half and continues on the following line. Now I suspect that with about 1 hours work this could be fixed. Hint. Use MS Word search & replace feature to remove unwanted paragraph breaks that are created in the digital conversion process (I'm pretty sure that this is where it went wrong).

How on earth do people market stuff that is so obviously defective?

I'm baffled at so many review praising the content - and I don't doubt it's great - but which simply ignore the fact that the text is virtually un-usuable. Is there a better formatted version out there?

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 storyteller does not 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.

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily 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."

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 storyteller does not 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.

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily 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."