Over the course of a generation, the Hellenic city-states of Athens and Sparta fought a bloody conflict that resulted in the collapse of Athens and the end of its golden age. Thucydides wrote the standard history of the Peloponnesian War, which has given readers throughout the ages a vivid and authoritative narrative. But "A War Like No Other" offers readers a complete chronological account that reflects the political background of the time, the strategic thinking of the combatants, the misery of battle, and an insight into how these events echo in the present day. In compelling detail, Hanson portrays how Athens and Sparta fought on land and sea, in city and countryside, using tactics that ranged from conventional sieges to targeted assassinations, torture and terror. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors like Pericles and Lysander, dramatists such as Aristophanes, and philosophers including Sophocles and Plato. Victor Davis Hanson's perceptive analysis of events and personalities raises many thought-provoking questions. Were Athens and Sparta like America and the USSR, two superpowers battling to the death? Is the Peloponnesian War echoed in the drawn-out conflicts of Vietnam, Northern Ireland and the current Middle-East? Was it more of a civil war, a brutal rift that rent the fabric of a glorious society; or a violent schism between liberals and conservatives, a cultural contest of the kind that even today determines a country's military policies? Hanson daringly brings the facts to life and unearths the often-surprising ways in which the past informs the present.