TY - BOOK ID - 14590592 TI - Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom PY - 2015 SN - 0801455588 9780801455582 080145316X 9780801453168 1336284250 080145557X 9781336284258 9780801455575 PB - Ithaca, NY DB - UniCat KW - Liberty. KW - Civil liberty KW - Emancipation KW - Freedom KW - Liberation KW - Personal liberty KW - Thucydides KW - Thucydides. KW - Thucydide KW - Thukydides KW - Thoukudides KW - Political and social views. KW - Liberty KW - Democracy KW - Natural law KW - Political science KW - Equality KW - Libertarianism KW - Social control KW - E-books KW - Tucidide KW - Fukidid KW - Tucídides KW - Thoukydidēs KW - תוקידידיס KW - Θουκυδίδης UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:14590592 AB - In Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom, Mary P. Nichols argues for the centrality of the idea of freedom in Thucydides' thought. Through her close reading of his History of the Peloponnesian War, she explores the manifestations of this theme. Cities and individuals in Thucydides' history take freedom as their goal, whether they claim to possess it and want to maintain it or whether they desire to attain it for themselves or others. Freedom is the goal of both antagonists in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta and Athens, although in different ways. One of the fullest expressions of freedom can be seen in the rhetoric of Thucydides' Pericles, especially in his famous funeral oration. More than simply documenting the struggle for freedom, however, Thucydides himself is taking freedom as his cause. On the one hand, he demonstrates that freedom makes possible human excellence, including courage, self-restraint, deliberation, and judgment, which support freedom in turn. On the other hand, the pursuit of freedom, in one's own regime and in the world at large, clashes with interests and material necessity, and indeed the very passions required for its support. Thucydides' work, which he himself considered a possession for all time, therefore speaks very much to our time, encouraging the defense of freedom while warning of the limits and dangers in doing so. The powerful must defend freedom, Thucydides teaches, but beware that the cost not become freedom itself. ER -