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Peloponnesian War by Thucydides For over 30 years, I have returned to Thucydides' Peloponnesian War again and again to discover new insights, subtleties and depths in the book. This classic work of fifth-century Greece is essential to my teaching and research as a historian, for Thucydides taught me that history is both an intellectual and a literary endeavor - not a morality play, a romantic narrative or a recitation of "facts." Thucydides demonstrates that history - based on research and critical analysis -- is the study of human nature, that, while customs and institutions vary from place to place, the essential features of human nature, both positive and negative, are universal. From Pericles' Funeral Oration, with its ideal that Athenians are "lovers of beauty without excess and lovers of wisdom without a loss of vigor," to the account of the plague at Athens, which stripped people of their veneer of civilize behavior and exposed the fragility of their decency, to the description of the utterly tragic failure of the Athenian expedition to Sicily, Thucydides' work remains a treasure on my bookshelf and an inspiration in my life. -- Don Kyle |
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