The necessities of war : a study of Thucydides' pessimism / Peter Pouncey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pouncey, Peter R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War.

Thucydides.

Thucydides--Criticism and interpretation.

Pessimism.

History.

Criticism and interpretation.

Greece--History--Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C--Historiography.

Greece.

Historiography.

Pessimism--Greece--History--To 1500.

Physical Description:

xii, 205 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Rhinebeck, New York : Sheep Meadow Press, [2013]

Summary:

Thucydides called his History of the Peloponnesian War "a possession for all time" and perhaps more than any other classical history it speaks to us with a contemporary voice. Working closely with the text, Peter Pouncey lays bare its intellectual framework, which directs the historian in his selection of material and guides both him and his readers to an understanding of the rise and fall of a society. In this framework, the primary factors of fear, aggression and self-interest first impel a city to concerted action for security and profit, and ultimately create large power blocs polarized against each other. Pouncey's Thucydides won Columbia's Lionel Trilling Award. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Thucydides' Own Experience of the War

Accuracy (akribeia) and the Pattern of Events : Methodology and Point of View

The Progress of Pessimism in Thucydides : The Sketch of an Argument

The Archaeology (1.1-23)

Collective Action to the Point of War

Pericles

Melos

Alcibiades : A Patriot for Himself

Individuals in the Toils of War : Nicias and Phrynichus

Human Nature at War in Thucydides

Appendix: Human Nature in Hobbes.

Notes:

Originally published: New York : Columbia University Press, 1980.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781937679194

1937679195

OCLC:

818143905