The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens is one of the most famous wars in history. It involved nearly all the Greek city states who were drawn into the war as allies of one city or the other. Thucydides lived through the war and actually served as a general for Athens during part of the war. The parallels between America's foreign policy and this war make the book especially interesting. Athens sent its largest army ever off to fight in Sicily: it never returned. This experience has been repeated by many successive powers such as Rome in the Teutoburg Forest and Great Britain in Afghanistan.
Overall I found this book entertaining, enlightening, and horrifying. Several times Athens kills all the men inside a city for having the temerity to resist her. From one of these attacks come they saying "the strong do what they may, the weak what they must."
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