A Use for History

Sir Nigel Bagnall's book, The Pelopennesian War: Athens. Sparta, and the Struggle for Greece, presents an interesting look and an even more interesting analysis of the reasons for the decisions taken and the outcome they had in one of the most important events from antiquity. At the beginning of the book, there is a chapter devoted entirely to explaining the principle characters from history. Due to Greece's political structure at the time, another area explaining the locations, as well as the history and influence of the various city states was also included. In each chapter, there is a section devoted to three main ideas, the strategic, operational, and tactical doctrine and decisions made by the various commanders. These sections give insight into the reasons why various decisions were taken, why cities where left to burn and why entire arrmies were sent into near certain defeat for what seemed a paltry gain. Another interesting concept the author plays with but never really fully develops is the connection of the war to things in our time such as the function of NATO and other alliance systems from various time periods. While these sections are interesting, since they really do not advance the idea of the book in any discernable level, they should probably have just been left out.