The Peloponnesian War

by Donald Kagan

For three decades in the fifth century B.C. the ancient world was torn apart by a conflict that was as dramatic, divisive, and destructive as the world wars of the twentieth century: the Peloponnesian War. Donald Kagan, one of the world’s most respected classical, political, and military historians, here presents a new account of this vicious war of Greek against Greek, Athenian against Spartan. The Peloponnesian War is a magisterial work of history written for general readers, offering a fresh examination of a pivotal moment in Western civilization. With a lively, readable narrative that conveys a richly
detailed portrait of a vanished world while honoring its timeless relevance, The Peloponnesian War is a chronicle of the rise and fall of a great empire and of a dark time whose lessons still resonate today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Military History, Greece, War, Classics

511 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2003

About the author

Professor Kagan, who received his PhD from Ohio State University in 1958, has written The Great Dialogue: A History of Greek Political Thought from Homer to Polybius (1965 and 1986); The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (1969); The Archidamian War (1974); The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (1981); The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987); Pericles and the Birth of the Athenian Empire (1990); On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace (1995); While America Sleeps (2000) with Frederick W. Kagan; The Western Heritage (2000) with Steven Ozment and Frank M. Turner; The Heritage of World Civilizations (2000) with Albert M. Craig, William A. Graham, Ozment and Turner; The Peloponnesian War (2003).

Winner of the National Humanities Medal for 2002, and a prominent social and political critic, his graduate courses include seminars in the writings of selected Greek historians and in selected periods in Greek history.