num_pages: 438
description: Kagan offers a new evaluation of the origins &amp; causes of the Peloponnesian War, based on evidence produced by modern scholarship &amp; on a careful reconsideration of the ancient texts. He focuses his study on the question: Was the war inevitable, or could it have been avoided? He takes issue with Thucydides' view that the war was inevitable, that the rise of the Athenian Empire in a world with an existing rival power made a clash between the two a certainty. Asserting instead that the origin of the war "cannot, without serious distortion, be treated in isolation from the internal history of the states involved," he traces the connections between domestic politics, constitutional organization &amp; foreign affairs. He further examines the evidence to see what decisions were made that led to war, at each point asking whether a different decision would have been possible.
language: English
title: The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War
titlecomplete: The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War
genres: Historical, History, Classics, Greece, Ancient, Military History, Ancient History, War, Politics, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 412
series: The Peloponnesian War
publisher: Cornell University Press (Ithaca/London)