Why read Thucydides and the Shaping of History?

Book cover of Thucydides and the Shaping of History

Book description

Thucydides' work was one of the most exciting creations in the cultural history of Greece in the fifth century BC and it still poses fresh and challenging questions about the writing of history. There is a marked tension in Thucydides' History between his aim to write about contemporary events and…

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History

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Why read it?

1 author picked Thucydides and the Shaping of History as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Neville Morley

Author

Thucydides is generally seen to be a kind of historian; one of the two inventors of history in fifth-century BCE Greece (together with Herodotus) and, according to many of his modern admirers, someone who had anticipated the modern idea of history as critical and scientific. On the other hand, he never thought of himself as a historian, and many aspects of his work do not fit at all with our expectations. Emily Greenwood does an excellent job of exploring these issues from different perspectives: considering Thucydides in his original context and his relationship to different contemporary traditions of making sense…

From Neville's list on The best books to understand Thucydides.