How to Think About War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy, Thucydides, Princeton University Press.

Thucydides intended his account of the clash between classical Greece's mightiest powers--Athens and Sparta--to be a "possession for all time." Today, it remains a foundational work for the study not only of ancient history but also contemporary politics and international relations. How to Think about War features speeches that have earned the History its celebrated status--all of those delivered before the Athenian Assembly, as well as Pericles's funeral oration and the notoriously ruthless "Melian Dialogue." Organized by key debates, these complex speeches reveal the recklessness, cruelty, and realpolitik of Athenian warfighting and imperialism.

 

The first English-language collection of speeches from Thucydides in nearly half a century, How to Think about War takes readers straight to the heart of this timeless thinker.