Book cover of The Peloponnesian War

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The Unabridged Crawley Translation, Introduction by Terry Wick

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1 author picked The Peloponnesian War as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The Peloponnesian War is the first work of history, the first piece of sustained political analysis, and it reads today, 2400 years later, as if it were composed yesterday. It reflects on the decline of 5th century BC Athens, and how it was that the wealthiest of ancient Greek states, one with a vast and unequalled empire, could lose a thirty-year war to relatively primitive and small, Sparta.

Thucydides was an Athenian who fought in the war and was unfairly exiled by his own city, but is still able to reflect dispassionately, and sadly, on the calamitous failures of political…

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Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

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