So what should the next president read?
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee asked a bunch of people — your humble blogger included — to recommend the book that the next president should read before taking office. I went old, old school: I’d probably advise the president to read the uber-source for international relations, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War . ...
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee asked a bunch of people -- your humble blogger included -- to recommend the book that the next president should read before taking office. I went old, old school: I’d probably advise the president to read the uber-source for international relations, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. Too many people only read portions like the Melian Dialogue, which leads to a badly distorted view of world politics (the dialogue represents the high-water mark of Athenian power — it all goes downhill after that). The entire text demonstrates the complex and tragic features of international politics, the folly of populism, the occasional necessity of forceful action, the temptations and dangers of empire, and, most importantly, the ways in which external wars can transform domestic politics in unhealthy ways. I was torn between Thucydides and Doris Kearns Goodwin's
Team of Rivals
, but I figured -- correctly -- that Obama was already familiar with that work. I'll put the same question to you that Scott put to me: what one book would you recommend to the president-elect?
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee asked a bunch of people — your humble blogger included — to recommend the book that the next president should read before taking office. I went old, old school:
I’d probably advise the president to read the uber-source for international relations, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War
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. Too many people only read portions like the Melian Dialogue, which leads to a badly distorted view of world politics (the dialogue represents the high-water mark of Athenian power — it all goes downhill after that). The entire text demonstrates the complex and tragic features of international politics, the folly of populism, the occasional necessity of forceful action, the temptations and dangers of empire, and, most importantly, the ways in which external wars can transform domestic politics in unhealthy ways.
I was torn between Thucydides and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s
Team of Rivals
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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