Some thoughts on The Geostrategy of the Peloponnesian War Part 2
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== 1) Literature Review (in Youtube description) ==
- You will encounter a similar issue when reading both Thucydides and Kagan: you get assaulted by so many facts (some relevant) that you *WILL* lose the forest for the trees and be buried in this detail and that instead of the bigger picture. So I tend to recommend reading them last.
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- Hanson on the other hand is pretty casual. Like it's great if you want to read about how hard it is to chop down vines as part of his commentary of the Invasion of Attica but I prefer something more academic and to-the-point. Has a very useful timeline of the war, however.
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- That leaves Lazenby and Henderson, both of which were further up my alley as strategic analyses of the situation. Henderson uses his narrative to push a pro-Alcibiades narrative BUT it's OK in my book as it's well argued.
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- Rusch and Sears cover Greek warfare in general so aren't very informative for this specific period, but give greater context to the Greek 'conventional strategy'.
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- de Wet's article is almost must-read when considering Pericles' strategy, because it offers a counter to the conventional 'strategic defensive' narrative.
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== 2) Reason for the Delay (*AGAIN*) and Moving Forward ==
- Hong Kong and my own laziness, really. I suppose you could say I had writer's block re: the video series I want to make on the protests.
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- I apologize for the delay, and also for ending the delay with what is basically an HD version of something I've covered before. As mentioned in the description, the 3 scripts (Archidamian; Ionian; Politics + Strategy) have already been finalized and I'll be working on those videos, if only to fulfill a backlog that I owe to CaspianReport.
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- After that, the video series on protest/revolutionary strategy. (I know I was going to do Indo-Pakistani strategy before but I haven't even gotten to writing out the reading list yet...)
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== 3) Thoughts on the Video ==
- I do think there's a need to update my previous video on Pel War, NOT just b/c the audio and script could be better BUT also because there's room to re-introduce some alternate lines of thought into the subject.
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- Most importantly, starting w/this video we need to reconsider the view that Pericles was essentially just trying to wait Sparta out (which all the books sort of assume). NOT just for the reasons I mentioned in the video, BUT also bc this view makes Pericles an outlier in Athenian politics - and therefore, starting w/Thucydides, a rare sober mind in an otherwise corrupted Athenian democracy. The video series will pose a counterpoint that Pericles' strategy was not an outlier, and that other strategists esp. Cleon and Alcibiades might have achieved more for Athens.
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- One thing I wish I had more info on was the strategic debate WITHIN the Peloponnesian League - Sparta did ask its allies to start building ships, BUT I wish I had more knowledge re: lobbying efforts with Syracuse/Persia/Macedonia and even coordination w/Boeotia. I guess it would have been lost somewhere in the depths of Kagan's book...
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- One thing I decided not to talk about in the video is with regards to the 'ritualization' of hoplite warfare by the time of PW, which both disguises AND confirms the 'meta-logic' of the conventional strategy. Hoplite warfare was ritualistically tied to land, with the soldier being both cultivator and defender: hence why the massive reaction of the Acharnians at Archidamus' ravaging.
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- On the technical side, trying to standardize my video elements and trying to use less 'jargon' as that's something that viewers have commented on (+ NOT having enough time to view data)
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