Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity

The Limits of Political Realism

Gregory Crane

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520207899
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520918740
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is the earliest surviving realist text in the European tradition. As an account of the Peloponnesian War, it is famous both as an analysis of power politics and as a classic of political realism. From the opening speeches, Thucydides' Athenians emerge as a new and frightening source of power, motivated by self-interest and oblivious to the rules and shared values under which the Greeks had operated for centuries. Gregory Crane demonstrates how Thucydides' history brilliantly analyzes both the power and the dramatic weaknesses of realist thought. The tragedy of Thucydides' history emerges from the ultimate failure of the Athenian project. The new morality of the imperialists proved as conflicted as the old; history shows that their values were unstable and self-destructive. Thucydides' history ends with the recounting of an intellectual stalemate that, a century later, motivated Plato's greatest work. Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity includes a thought-provoking discussion questioning currently held ideas of political realism and its limits. Crane's sophisticated claim for the continuing usefulness of the political examples of the classical past will appeal to anyone interested in the conflict between the exercise of political power and the preservation of human freedom and dignity.
Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is the earliest surviving realist text in the European tradition. As an account of the Peloponnesian War, it is famous both as an analysis of power politics and as a classic of political realism. From th

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 1
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• CHAPTER I Sherman at Melos Realpolitik Ancient and Modern
• CHAPTER 2 Truest Causes and Thucydidean Realisms
• THE REALISMS OF THUCYDIDES
• THUCYDIDES AND POLITICAL REALISM
• Representations of Power before and after Thucydides
• INSCRIBING THE LIMITS OF AUTHORITY: THE HEGEMONY OF HERODOTUS’S SPARTANS
• XENOPHON’S SELF-FASHIONING SPARTANS
• CHAPTER 4 Power, Prestige, and the Corcyraean Affair
• THE ANGER OF CORINTH
• THE SPEECHES OF THE CORCYRAEANS AND CORINTHIANS
• CHAPTER 5 Archaeology I The Analytical Program of the History
• VIEWS ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• THE ORIGINAL HUMANITY AND THE HEROIC PAST
• THE ORIGINAL HUMANITY AND THE FORCES OF PRODUCTION
• THE POLIS AS THE BASIC SOCIAL UNIT
• THE CONSTITUENT TIES OF SOCIETY: AID0S AND DIKE
• CHAPTER 6 Archaeology II From Wealth to Capital: The Changing Politics of Accumulation
• WEALTH IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD: SYMBOLIC RATHER THAN FINANCIAL CAPITAL
• THUCYDIDES AND “SYMBOLIC CAPITAL”
• THUCYDIDES AND CAPITAL
• CHAPTER 7 The Rule of the Strong and the Limits of Friendship
• MYTILENE
• SPARTAN TRADITIONALISM
• CHAPTER 8 Archidamos and Sthenelaidas The Dilemma of Spartan Authority
• ARCHIDAMOS
• STHENELAIDAS
• ARCHIDAMOS’S VISION AND SPARTAN PRACTICE
• CHAPTER 9 The Melian Dialogue From Herodotus’s Freedom Fighters to Thucydides’ Imperialists
• HERODOTUS’S ATHENIANS AND THE POLITICS OF HEROISM
• THUCYDIDES AND THE GRANDCHILDREN OF SALAMIS
• CHAPTER 10 Athenian Theses Realism as the Modern Simplicity
• THE ATHENIANS AT SPARTA: OLD VICTORIES, NEW LESSONS
• “MORE JUST” RATHER THAN “JUST”: JUSTICE AS A ZERO-SUM GAME
• PROBLEMS IN THE DATA: EUPHEMOS AT KAMARINA AND THE MELIAN DIALOGUE
• CHAPTER 11 Conclusion Thucydidean Realism and the Price of Objectivity
• ESSENTIALISM, HISTORY, AND IDEOLOGY IN THUCYDIDES
• THE CITY AND MAN
• THE FUNERAL ORATION AND THE PRICE OF OBJECTIVITY
• Bibliography
• Index