On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace

Professor Kagan Reveals The Common Threads That Connect The Ancient Confrontations Between Athens And Sparta And Between Rome And Carthage With The Two Calamitous World Wars Of Our Own Century. The Peloponnesian War 431-404 B.c. -- The First World War 1914-1918 -- Hannibal's War : The Second Punic War 218-201 B.c. -- The Second World War 1939-1945 -- The Cuban Missile Crisis. Donald Kagan. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 575-589) And Index. A study of why wars begin and how they can be prevented. The author takes four mammoth wars and one near-suicidal nuclear confrontation to explore the question of why wars break out, what common threads link conflicts throughout history, and how, in the post-Soviet world, we can preserve peace. FOR ALMOST THREE decades at the end of the fifth century B.C. the Athenians and their allies fought the Spartans and theirs in a terrible war that changed the Greek world and its civilization forever.