The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Peloponnesian War
Book Review: A wonderful history, plus lessons for our own time
Summary: 5 Stars
Donald Kagan has taken 2500-year-old accounts written by Thucydides and others and produced a book that succeeds on two levels. First, it provides an excellent if slightly dry history of the war that led to the collapse of the Athenian empire. We learned a lot about Athens in school, and in Western world we view it as the birthplace of democracy. Kagan explains why Athens and Sparta went to war and stayed at war long past the point of exhaustion. He also explains how the various Greek cities grasped for power when the two Greek superpowers locked horns. He even manages to explain the budget issues facing Athens -- as in how many talents of silver it took to keep a war galley at sea for a year.
We also learn a great deal about how Sparta and other Greek cities worked, and how they managed to stumble into a 10-year conflict that emptied Athens' treasury. The history is written in a very matter-of-fact style that some make think is a too dry, but adding emotion to a 2500-year-old story would seem artificial to me.
The book succeeds in a second valuable way. It explains diplomacy as few historians do, largely by example. Kagan provides explanations for each of the major decisions made by the cities of Greece during (and before) the war. Countries don't always behave logically, and the logic that does exist in often hidden from an outsider's view. In the process of explaining what Athens and Sparta did, Kagan illustrates the mechanism by which decisions were arrived at. In the process and without mentioning it himself, he tells us a great deal about how foreign policy is arrived at today.
Democracy is supposed to work better than any other form of government, and it probably does. So it's not particularly reassuring to see that an ancient proto-democracy blundered so many times because of the influence of individual leaders with their own agendas. But it sure is educational.
So... read it for the history of ancient Greece, and come away with a better understanding of our own times.
Book Review: An authoritative and readable account of a truly melancholic war
Summary: 5 Stars
As far as reading ancient history goes, you can't go wrong with delving into the Peloponnesian War. While this reviewer leans toward the Greco-Persian wars, it is hard to deny the attraction and importance of the devastating war between Athens and Sparta. And if you're looking for an authoritative account of that war, Donald Kagan's book is for you.
Other reviewers have stated that Kagan's work is authoritative, and they are right. Of course, as with any history, no treatment can be deemed "authoritative" if that term is meant to signify a book that renders impossible further original or important work on the subject. (You could go back to Thucydides himself, or you could fast forward a couple thousand years to Victor David Hanson's fine work, to provide but two examples.) But Kagan's work is so thorough that there is really no need for a reader to turn elsewhere, and perhaps that is ultimately why the term "authoritative" seems to fit.
The real praise, though, is in the fact that Kagan's book never devolves into an encyclopedic account of the war. It is imminently readable. Indeed, by the time this reader came to the final page, he was left with distinct and lingering melancholy regarding the fate of 5th century Athens and the might-have-beens for Greek -- and therefore Western -- civilization. Only an engaging story can convey such feelings.
Book Review: An excellent overview of the war
Summary: 5 Stars
It was a treat reading Donald Kagan's book on the Peloponnesian War. As you may know, he had previously written a 4-book series on the war, each one focusing on a different phase of the war. This book was meant to be a one-book consolidation. The rub, for me, came in deciding whether or not to read the 4 separate books that delve deeper or just satisfy myself with 500 pages on the topic and move on.
Kagan is one of the leading scholars on the war and writes extremely well. The book reads quickly and painlessly. I did feel slightly let down, however, because Kagan seems, in large part, to be simply retelling Thucydides, without scholarly inquiry or questioning.
I especially appreciated Fagan's integration of quotes and information from Plutarch in the Thucydides' section and wished there had been more, perhaps information on what the battle scenes look like today or more background information on the city-states involved or areas Thucydides' account is deficient or contested. The post-Thucydides section at the end was more of a mish-mash of sources and quoted Xenophon's Hellenica surprisingly infrequently.
If you're not sure which book to read in order to learn about the Peloponnesian War, I would definitely read Kagan's one book. If you're interested in anything much more than the storyline, you may want to look into Kagan's four books or other books or even try to slog through Thucydides (good luck!).
Book Review: BRILLIANT
Summary: 5 Stars
I learned more about the War from this book than I did in any class or combination of texts from college.Book Review: Chaos Made Comprehensible
Summary: 5 Stars
My interest in the Athens/Sparta civil war (431-404 BC) came from an historical novel (Tides of War-Steven Pressfield) and a military history (A War Like No Other-Victor Davis Hanson). A fascinating yet highly confusing conflict that seesawed back and forth over three decades. I needed a chronological account to bring it all together and picked Kagan based on Hanson's recommendation.
What a well written book, with many superb maps. A true scholar (four volumes for the academics) who wrote this single volume for the layman. He takes things in order, puts everything in context and describes the strategies and tactics concisely and lucidly. Exactly what I was looking for.
Read this book, then Pressfield and Hanson, and you'll have a grounding in this still highly relevant 2,400 year old brutal struggle between a direct democracy and a martial oligarchy.