Thucydides' classic work on the history of the Peloponnesian War is the root of Western conceptions of history -- including the idea that Western history is the foundation of everyone else's.

Here, Marshall Sahlins takes on Thucydides and the conceptions of history he wrought with a groundbreaking new book.

In this most convincing presentation yet of his influential theory of culture, Sahlins experiments with techniques for mixing rich narrative with cultural explication in the hope of doing justice at once to the actions of persons and the customs of people.