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Learning from the Past
After witnessing the civil war that has ravaged his country for almost three decades, an historian makes this observation about the moral decline of the nation: "The ancient simplicity into which honor so largely entered was laughed down and disappeared, and society became divided into camps in which no man trusted his fellow." "Revenge," he also writes, "was held of more account than self-preservation."
The nuances of Thucydides' thoughts and the milieu of the ancient world, long inaccessible to readers of Thucydides in translation, have now been brought to life for readers of English through the efforts of businessman-scholar Robert B. Strassler (MBA '61). Published in 1996, The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, which Strassler conceived and edited, is a 711-page work that includes an updated version of the classic Richard Crawley translation, 114 specially commissioned maps, and 11 explanatory appendices as well as numerous footnotes and other study aids.
Insights into contemporary human behavior and society, written more than 2,400 years ago.
The volume's publication marks the realization of a long-held ambition for Strassler, who first became acquainted with English versions of Thucydides in high school and college. "Thucydides' history is a window on the world of Athens and Sparta," says Strassler. "But beyond that, it provides an extraordinary case study, as relevant today as it was then, of society breaking down under the brutalizing effects of war. For many subjects, from history to philosophy, from ethics to aesthetics, our intellectual inheritance from the ancient Greeks is so vital that those of us who are ignorant of their great works know themselves less well than they might, and to their cost."
Strassler credits his successful business career with giving him the time and wherewithal to undertake and finance the project. In 1963, he and his associates took over the management of an ailing oil-field equipment manufacturer and led it back to profitability during the oil boom of the 1970s. By 1983, however, boom had turned to bust. After restructuring the company to a more suitable size, Strassler cashed out and helped his brother launch a family-run investment fund based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
A history major at Harvard College, Strassler had had little time to pursue that interest after graduating from HBS as a Baker Scholar. But now he was able to turn his attention to history - and to other interests in education and music - which eventually resulted in his acceptance of an invitation to teach a course on ancient Greek culture at Simon's Rock College, where he served as a trustee for many years.
"I noticed that students who had enjoyed Homer and Herodotus in my class became hopelessly lost in Thucydides," says Strassler, who does not know ancient Greek but has immersed himself over the years in relevant books and articles as well as translations. What was needed, he realized, was a reader-friendly text. Hence The Landmark Thucydides, the result of seven years' work by Strassler in conjunction with a professional cartographer and classicists in the United States and Great Britain. The book won kudos when it was published last fall by The Free Press. A History Book Club selection and an alternative choice of the Book-of-the-Month Club, it is now going into a second printing.
Thanks to Strassler's efforts, generations of students, history buffs, and others will finally understand what Thucydides meant when he wrote that his work was intended to be regarded "as a possession for all time."
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