Finley, J. H. Three Essays on Thucydides. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.

From the Preface:

These articles concern what, thirty years ago, seemed two chief uncertainties surrounding Thucydides’ History. The first, which appeared rather from comments of scholars than from formal discussion of the subject, has to do with the cast of Thucydides’ style and thought, in the first books especially. If, as some held, it was the joint effect of his exile and of the shock of war to Greek outlooks that bred ill him his bold style and the political awareness of which it was the vehicle, then the History remains a unique record by a superbly gifted observer, but readers should beware of accepting the picture of the minds and policies, particularly those of Pericles, that he conveyed from the years near the outbreak. Rather, the portrayal would reflect his own slowly matured powers and would be anachronistic in the mouths of men a generation older. The second problem–when the various parts of the History may have been composed–had been vehemently pursued since the middle of the last century. It was in some conflict with the first problem: for if Thucydides for a while thought the war over with the Peace of Nicias and wrote much of the first books in that delusion, he would hardly have had time to form new habits of style, and his portrayal of Athenian f,gures at least would carry fresh memories of the Athens that he left in 424. To be sure, F. W. Ullrich’s initial thesis–that the so-called second introduction in V 26 announced the historian’s new sense that the several phases of the war.

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