By John David Lewis
The historical treatises of Herodotus, Thucydides and Polybius were magnificent feats of intellectual integration. Building on their predecessors, they wanted to understand the causes of great events in rational terms. Herodotus's focus on customs, Thucydides' concern for human nature and Polybius's stress on political constitutions give their works a timeless relevance. This course offers an introduction to several important ideas in these treatises as a guide to deeper reading.
This course was recorded at the 2005 Objectivist Summer Conference in San Diego, CA.
(MP3 download; 5 hrs., 51 mins., with Q & A, 252.04 MB)
