Major Works

• The Peloponnesian War

  - Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans. S. Lattimore. New York: Hackett Publishing Co., 1998.
  Review: Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War mixes tragedy and intellection, profound emotion and painstaking analysis. Steven Lattimore has met the most daunting challenge to a translator of Thucydides, which is to provide a sense of this combination.… More

Commentary

• Man in His Pride

  - Grene, David, Man in His Pride, Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1950.

• Chance and Intelligence in Thucydides

  - Edmunds, Lowell. Chance and Intelligence in Thucydides. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.

• The City and Man by Leo Strauss

  - Strauss, Leo. “On Thucydides' War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians.” In The City and Man, 50–85. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Originally published 1964 by the University Press of Virginia.
  From the publisher: The City and Man consists of provocative essays by the late Leo Strauss on Aristotle’s Politics, Plato’s Republic, and Thucydides’ Peloponnesian Wars. Together, the essays constitute a brilliant attempt to use… More

• The Necessities of War: A Study of Thucydides’ Pessimism

  - Pouncey, Peter R.  The Necessities of War: A Study of Thucydides' Pessimism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
  From the publisher: Peter Pouncey presents for us and for the gods the mind of Thucydides as an historian and writer. Pouncey gives us an amazing reading of Thucydides’ amazing reading of the confused experience of wartime events. He nails down for us… More

• The Human Thing: The Speeches and Principles of Thucydides’ History

  - Cogan, Marc.  The Human Thing: The Speeches and Principles of Thucydides' History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
  Introduces speeches of Thucydides’ History, including Pericles Funeral Oration.

• Lichas, Lacédémonien, archonte à Thasos, et le livre viii de Thucydide

  - Pouilloux, J. and F. Salviat. Lichas, Lacédémonien, archonte à Thasos, et le livre viii de Thucydide. CRAI , 376-403, 1983.

• Thucydides

  - Connor, W. Robert. Thucydides. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
  From the Publisher: This full-scale sequential reading of Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War will be invaluable to the specialist and also to those in search of an introduction and companion to the “Histories.” Moving beyond other… More

• “Justifying Empire” by Clifford Orwin

  - Orwin, Clifford, “Justifying Empire: The Speech of the Athenians at Sparta and the Problem of Justice in Thucydides,” The Journal of Politics, vol. 48, no. 1, 72-85, 1986.

• Thucydides

  - Hornblower, Simon. Thucydides. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

• The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism

  - Strauss, Leo, “The Meaning of Political History,” The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism, ed. T. Pangle Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1989.
  Review: This concise and accessible introduction to Strauss’s thought provides, for wider audience, a bridge to his more complex theoretical work. Editor Pangle has gathered five of Strauss’s previously unpublished lectures and five hard-to-find… More

• The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (A New History of the Peloponnesian War)

  - Kagan, Donald. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1989.
  From the publisher: The first volume of Donald Kagan’s acclaimed four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War offers a new evaluation of the origins and causes of the conflict, based on evidence produced by modern scholarship and on a careful… More

• “Thucydides, Power Transition Theory, and the Causes of War.”

  - Lebow, Richard Ned. "Thucydides, Power Transition Theory, and the Causes of War," In Lebow and Barry S. Strauss, eds., Hegemonic Rivalry: From Thucydides to the Nuclear Age, pp. 125-65. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991.
  Review: Strategists and international relations theorists, both of whom trace their lineage to Thucydides, meet classicists in an engaging debate over reinterpreting him and the relevance of his commentary on Athens and Sparta to present-day Soviet-American… More

• “Varieties of Realism: Thucydides and Machiavelli”

  - Forde, Stephen, “Varieties of Realism: Thucydides and Machiavelli,” Journal of Politics, vol. 54, no. 02, , 372-393, 1992.
  Review: Realists have dominated the postwar study of international politics, but they have not always taken seriously the problems of realism as a moral theory. One such problem is the difficulty of reconciling realism with devotion to ethics in any sphere,… More

• Thucydides, Hobbes, and the Interpretation of Realism

  - Johnson, Laurie. Thucydides, Hobbes, and the Interpretation of Realism, DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1993.
  Table of Contents: List of Abbreviations Introduction Ch. 1 Human Nature 3 Hobbes 4 Thucydides 27 A Comparison of Hobbes and Thucydides on Human Nature 63 Ch. 2 Justice 72 Hobbes 73 Thucydides 98 A Comparison of Hobbes and Thucydides on Justice 140 Ch. 3… More

• The Humanity of Thucydides by Clifford Orwin

  - Orwin, Clifford. The Humanity of Thucydides. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
  From the Publisher: Thucydides has long been celebrated for the unflinching realism of his presentation of political life. And yet, as some scholars have asserted, his work also displays a profound humanity. In the first thorough exploration of the relation… More

• Polis and Polemos: Essays on Politics, War,and History in Ancient Greece in Honor of Donald Kagan

  - Hamilton, Charles D., and Peter Krentz, eds. Polis and Polemos: Essays on Politics, War,and History in Ancient Greece in Honor of Donald Kagan, Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1997.

• Speaking the Same Language: Speech and Audience in Thucydides’ Spartan Debates

  - Debnar, Paula.  Speaking the Same Language: Speech and Audience inThucydides' Spartan Debates.  Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
  Overview: The Peloponnesian War, which destroyed imperial Athens and ultimately Sparta as well, continues to fascinate students of history, politics, and human nature. Thucydides’ account of the twenty-seven-year conflict charts the opposition between… More

• The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

  - Kagan, Donald. The Peloponnesian War. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
  From the Publisher: For three decades in the fifth century B.C. the ancient world was torn apart by a conflict that was as dramatic, divisive, and destructive as the world wars of the twentieth century: the Peloponnesian War. Donald Kagan, one of the… More

• Thucydides: The Reinvention of History

  - Kagan, Donald. Thucydides: The Reinvention of History, New York: Penguin Books, 2010.
  From the publisher: Yale professor of classics Kagan thoroughly examines Thucydides’ life and work to successfully demonstrate that the Athenian historian was the first to utilize a truly professional (i.e., realistic and methodical) approach in recounting… More