Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity: The Limits of Political Realism.

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Edge partly yellowed, otherwise very good and clean. / Schnitt teils vergilbt, sonst sehr gut und sauber. - Famous both as an analysis of power politics and as a classic of political realism, Thucydides' History of the PetbponnesianWar is the earliest surviving realist text in the European tradition. From the opening speeches, Thucydides' Athenians emerge as a new and frightening source of power, oblivious to the rules and shared values under which the Greeks had operated for centuries. Gregory Crane shows how many of the assumptions that Thucydides attributed to his actors�and that seem commonplace to us today�boldly critique the operative assumptions of the archaic Greek elites. Thucydides' perspective, however, was not simply negative. He attempted to reconstitute, in a new and purified form, the archaic moral system disdained by his actors. The "ancient simplicity" prized by the Greek elites reemerges in the ruthless discourse of Thucydides' Athenians. Articulating a new simplicity based on the natural law that the strong dominate the weak, they eschewed traditional qualities such as pity and generosity but preserved the forthrightness admired by earlier generations. Thucydides thus advanced a new code of behavior that while harsher was better adapted to rationalist critiques of his day. The tragedy of Thucydides' history emerges from the failure of the Athenian project. The new morality of the imperialists proved as conflicted as the old. The values preserved by his most farsighted actors proved to be unstable and self-destructive. Crane demonstrates how Thucydides' history brilliantly analyzes both the power and the dramatic weaknesses of realist thought. Thucydides' history ends with the recounting of an intellectual stalemate that a century later motivated Plato's greatest work. Crane's sophisticated claim for the continuing usefulness of the political examples of the classical past will appeal not only to classicists but to political scientists and anyone interested in the conflict between the exercise of political power and the preservation of human freedom and dignity. ISBN 9780520207899