A History of My Times (Penguin Classics)

Professor Cawkwell provides an excellent introduction to Rex Warner's translation of Xenophon's Hellenica, applauding the book's value as a memoir while questioning its validity as a straight history and pointing out where more recent research has reached a similar conclusion.

Greetings all, This is another Penguin classic, a worthy addition to one's library, but a better gift for a senior in high school or early college. It is a tale about how the world really works, ready for comparison with today. Best regards.

I wanted to read some of the works of Xenophon and so I purchased this book as well as another one. Unfortunately Penguin publishing allowed some guy named George Cawkwell to obnoxiously try to denigrate Xenophon in almost each and every page of the book with his footnotes.I assumed that Cawkwell was jealous of Xenophon since I really had the impression that Cawkwell personally disliked Xenophon due to his hostile footnotes.I got around this though by simply ignoring and not reading his footnotes at the bottom of the pages and found that it greatly helped my reading experience.I was then immersed in the world Xenophon was writing about and each time I saw a symbol by a word showing me that Cawkwell has written something at the bottom of the page, I purposely ignored it and did not read the obnoxious and hostile to Xenophon footnote.As for the physical book itself, mine was used and obviously by college students since it had been written in and underlined in a few places, but those markings were not as annoying as Cawkwell's text within the book.

This is by all means a heavily underrated book.Xenophon lays bare the essential characteristics of his (and our) time and its crucial kernel, independence.Inside the Greek cities, independence meant democracy, which was the political regime in Athens. The latter's arch-rival, Sparta, had an oligarchic rule, a government controlled by a king and the aristocracy.When Sparta defeated Athens, it put immediately a lackey oligarchic government (the Thirty) in place. The oligarchs could `do exactly what they liked with the state.' They went on a killing spree, murdering all democratic opponents, in casu, `more Athenians than all the Peloponnesians did in ten years of war.' They confiscated illegally the property of resident aliens and when people could vote, it was in full view.Xenophon knows perfectly the importance of education: `For I know that in Persia everybody except one man is educated to be a slave rather than stand up for himself.'Inside the Peloponnesus, independence meant freedom for every city: `the cities must be independent, which means not to set up your own government ... what you aim at is not that they should govern in accordance with the laws, but that they should be strong enough to hold down the city by force. This makes it look like as though what gives you pleasure is dictatorship and not constitutional government.'The Greek cities fought against each other to become `like the king of Persia ... the richest man on earth ... he gets his revenue from a continent.' The reward for control was solid tribute, but also the goldmines of Mount Pangaeum.This continuous infighting and the relentless changes of alliances were a catastrophe for the populations. The inhabitants of the conquered cities were enslaved and sold or slaughtered, the crops and towns burned, cattle and precious metals stolen. The city was completely annihilated.The war ended with the peace of Antalcidas in 387 B.C. on very favorable terms for Sparta.Xenophon's book could also serve as a manual for vicious (bribery, infiltration, spying, informants) or clever diplomacy: `guard against the emergence of any single strong Greek state by seeing that they were all kept weak by constantly fighting among themselves.'It is also an encyclopedia for military tactics: where, when and how to fight and how to keep the morale of the troops high.He is also a fine psychologist: `people call a man `good' merely because he has been good to them.'To the contrary of his joke, `even the golden plane tree was not big enough to give shade to a grasshopper', Xenophon's book puts many authors in the shadow.A must read for all historians and lovers of classical literature.

The book is a history/memoir of the end of the pellopenesian war and the years after that led to the rise of Thebes and Macedonia. The writing is colored by the prejudices and biases of Xenophon but still gives a good basic account of the years that are detailed. The edition details the problems as the text progresses so the reader will not be confused.

This warrior author not to be seen again until Hemingway picks up with the Peloponnesian War where Thucydides left off.

Xenophon's History of My Times picks up roughly where Thucydides left off. After finishing the account of the long and exhausting Peloponnesian War, Xenophon continues with stories of intrigues, betrayals, campaigns and bravery up to the year 362 BC. The Corinthian War, Greek incursions in Asia Minor, and Xenophon's Spartan heroes are all depicted in this work.It's not nearly as good as Thucydides, nor nearly as exhaustive. Thucydides devoted about 600 pages (in my edition) to the first twenty years of the Peloponnesian War; Xenophon covers almost fifty years in about 350 pages. And while Thucydides's historical method has earned him the title of "first modern historian" and set the standard for centuries afterward, Xenophon is selective in his detail, sometimes wrong, and often biased. But Xenophon is still a gifted writer and the story he tells is brisk and exciting, if not necessarily the whole picture.The thing I disliked about reading this book, the Penguin Classics edition, was the notes by George Cawkwell. He sets out well enough in the introduction that Xenophon's history is flawed and among the least of his works, being far inferior to something like The Persian Expedition, but Cawkwell litters the text with footnote after footnote pointing out Xenophon's every mistake and omission. It was instructive, at first, to know how Xenophon's account differed with that of other historians, but by the time I was a third of the way through the notes had the exasperating effect of a know-it-all heckler during an admittedly flawed but entertaining speech.That said, Xenophon's history is still worth reading, and this translation by Rex Warner is excellent--fast-paced and very readable. If you're looking for history that Thucydides did not live to write about, this is one good place to find it.Recommended.

If you enjoyed the Peloponnesian war and wanted to know what happened next; Xenophon carried on the history. With focuses on different parts of the Hellenic world and including the relationship with Persia at the time, Xenophon writes the times of which he lived in and the personalities, speeches and developments of his time.That being said, he was an Athenian with a very Pro-Sparta view which does affect his writings. The editor points to other sources which conflict with SOME aspects of his telling of the wars between Greek Leagues and cities. All and all, it is a well written history with detailed developments easy to digest and understand.

very nice

Xenophon is a clever, wise analyst. Well, he should be since he, along with Plato, was a student of Socrates. He advised Thucydides on writing "The Peloponnesian War." His credentials are above reproach. His observations on "his world," a time of political and moral decline where the erstwhile centers of power are in long-term decline is useful to us in our time. Perhaps our political leaders, if they can crawl their way to a library would benefit from his wisdom.

This is by all means a heavily underrated book.Xenophon lays bare the essential characteristics of his (and our) time and its crucial kernel, independence.Inside the Greek cities, independence meant democracy, which was the political regime in Athens. The latter's arch-rival, Sparta, had an oligarchic rule, a government controlled by a king and the aristocracy.When Sparta defeated Athens, it put immediately a lackey oligarchic government (the Thirty) in place. The oligarchs could `do exactly what they liked with the state.' They went on a killing spree, murdering all democratic opponents, in casu, `more Athenians than all the Peloponnesians did in ten years of war.' They confiscated illegally the property of resident aliens and when people could vote, it was in full view.Xenophon knows perfectly the importance of education: `For I know that in Persia everybody except one man is educated to be a slave rather than stand up for himself.'Inside the Peloponnesus, independence meant freedom for every city: `the cities must be independent, which means not to set up your own government ... what you aim at is not that they should govern in accordance with the laws, but that they should be strong enough to hold down the city by force. This makes it look like as though what gives you pleasure is dictatorship and not constitutional government.'The Greek cities fought against each other to become `like the king of Persia ... the richest man on earth ... he gets his revenue from a continent.' The reward for control was solid tribute, but also the goldmines of Mount Pangaeum.This continuous infighting and the relentless changes of alliances were a catastrophe for the populations. The inhabitants of the conquered cities were enslaved and sold or slaughtered, the crops and towns burned, cattle and precious metals stolen. The city was completely annihilated.The war ended with the peace of Antalcidas in 387 B.C. on very favorable terms for Sparta.Xenophon's book could also serve as a manual for vicious (bribery, infiltration, spying, informants) or clever diplomacy: `guard against the emergence of any single strong Greek state by seeing that they were all kept weak by constantly fighting among themselves.'It is also an encyclopedia for military tactics: where, when and how to fight and how to keep the morale of the troops high.He is also a fine psychologist: `people call a man `good' merely because he has been good to them.'To the contrary of his joke, `even the golden plane tree was not big enough to give shade to a grasshopper', Xenophon's book puts many authors in the shadow.A must read for all historians and lovers of classical literature.

Good History Book! Wow! Have times changed!