George Cawkwell arrived in Oxford in 1946 as a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar and, like the lotus-eaters, "forgot the way home". In 1949 he became a Fellow of University College, Oxford where he tutored in Ancient History until 1995. He is the author of Philip of Macedon (1978) and many articles in learned journals on the history of Greece from the eighth to the fourth century BC.

• Preface Abbreviations Chapter 1. Thucydides Chapter 2. 'The Truest Explanation' Chapter 3. Thucydides and the Strategy of the Peloponnesian War Chapter 4. Thucydides, Pericles, and the 'Radical Demagogues' Chapter 5. Thucydides, Alcibiades, and the West Chapter 6. Thucydides and the Empire Appendix 1. A Note on the so-called 'Financial Decrees' of Callias IG 13 52 (=ML 58) Appendix 2. The Megara Decrees of Plutarch, Pericles 30 Appendix 3. Military Service in the Athenian Empire Notes Works referred to in the Notes

'Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War from George Cawkwell, ...is described on the cover as 'an important historian', and rightly so, for he has had stimulating and unorthodox things to say about any number of cruces in Greek History. Here he tackles five of the most debated issues in the history of the war: its 'truest' cause,Pericles' strategy, the role of the demagogues, the objectives of the Sicillian Expedition, and the popularity of the Empire. ...Cawkwell's analytical abilities shine through and make for interesting discussion throughout.' - Greece and Rome