Author Description

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. It seems obvious that the most important hallmark of any work of literature or art deemed a classic is its universality proven over time, the degree to which it really has remained cross-cultural, or perhaps more accurately expressed, humanocentric. That is, the appeal it perennially holds for any people at any time and in any place, while at the same time maintaining its distinct individuality. No one need dispute the fact that such is the case with the History of Thucydides which he himself prophetically labeled as a [Greek] 'possession forever', a remark intended to be simultaneously a boast and a fulfillment. How could a thinker make such a claim for his work unless he had the greatest confidence in it that it would survive the rigorous test of ages and generations? The bulk of his account of the political activities and motives of both individuals and of groups- ("must" reading and even a kind of handbook on statecraft for generation of European statesmen and civil servants)-is and has been relevant to nearly every age since. His is a document together with one of the finest testaments, from one of the most penetrating minds in world civilization, on the psychology of human behavior, especially as it reacts to war and to revolution.