Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of History (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521864114)

This book addresses the question of how and why history begins with the work of Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War is distinctive in that it is a prose narrative, meant to be read rather than performed. It focuses on the unfolding of contemporary great power politics to the exclusion of almost all other elements of human life, including the divine. The power of Thucydides' text has never been attributed either to the charm of its language or to the entertainment value of its narrative, or to some personal attribute of the author. In this study, Darien Shanske analyzes the difficult language and structure of Thucydides' History and argues that the text has drawn in so many readers into its distinctive world view precisely because of its kinship to the contemporary language and structure of Classical Tragedy. This kinship is not merely a matter of shared vocabulary or even aesthetic sensibility. Rather, it is grounded in a shared philosophical position, in particular on the polemical metaphysics of Heraclitus.

Author: Darien Shanske
ISBN-10: 0521864119
ISBN-13: 9780521864114
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/09/2006
Pages: 282
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 9.18h x 6.46w x 0.93d

Review Citation(s):
London Review of Books 11/20/2008 pg. 24