I was bowled over by Thucyidides -- as a first and great historian, but I'm sure you're right about Strauss' slant.
----- Original Message ----- Love of Thucydides is a thread that runs through the "neo-conservative" (anti-democratic) menagerie-- Hobbes of course translated Thucydides -- Donald Kagan, who in his condensed single-volume of the peloponnesian war keeps flogging on how the Athenians failed to rout the Spartans when they had the chance and overall weren't "tough" enough. --Victor Davis Hanson-- There are many more, but one's time is better spent elsewhere-- The refrain is "our democracy has enemies within who will weaken us to such an extent that the enemies out there will be able to completely crush our society!"
the other way of reading Thucydides of course is to ask: "why is the "democracy" sending colonies out across the Mediterranean, demanding tribute from them, protection money, acting like an aggressor, bullying smaller city-states-- Is this a society worth defending?"
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 12:30 AM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> Oh, boy! I notice these guys
>
> http://www.openculture.com/philosophy_free_courses
>
> have half a dozen Strauss lectures on Plato, one on Vico, and one on Thucydides.
>
> I'm almost tempted to see what this asshole might have had to say about Thcydides.
>
> Joanna
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