Thucydides Beyond the Cold War: The Recurrence of Relevance in the Classical Historians

2 It was during this time that I first discovered Steven Forde’s 1989 treatment of Thucydides, Ambition to Rule: Alcibiades and the Politics of Imperialism in Thucydides. Several of my professors praised it, although never assigning it, in class. Hearing them talk about it, Forde’s book fit the dominant Cold War paradigm quite well. Infatuated with that paradigm and the predictive power that it appeared to offer through Thucydides, I found and bought Forde’s book. This proved to be quite a trick for an undergraduate at a small rural college, miles from a real bookstore in preAmazon.com days. It was the very first academic monograph I ever purchased. In that regard, it was a significant marker in my life. When you are buying commentaries on ancient texts with the beer money, it likely means that law school is growing less attractive and graduate school is in the near future. I did not know what I was getting myself into.