Two Civil Wars ......and that Greek War reported on by Thucydides in 411 BC

Today's Radio 4 Start the Week has got the lot from the Spanish and Greek Civil Wars of the mid 20th century to a look back at war between Greece and Sparts which started in 431 BC.*

Spain Fights for Independence,1936

"But the programme is more than that and in the conversation between Yanis Varoufakis, Professor Mary Vincent, Paul Cartledge the three explore many elements of the history of those two civil wars and that ancient war for hegemony of Greece.

The economist Yanis Varoufakis found himself in the eye of the storm as Greece’s Minister of Finance in 2015, at the height of the country’s debt crisis. Now he reflects on his political awakenings and the women who influenced him in Raise Your Soul. It’s a family story that starts in Egypt in the 1920s and traces Greece’s tumultuous century through Nazi occupation, civil war, dictatorship, socialism and economic crisis.

The historian Professor Mary Vincent focuses on the Spanish Civil War and has written about fascism, political violence and its impact on the people. She sees both similarities and stark differences between the Greek and Spanish Civil Wars and ponders the question of how global politics influence what happens in nation states.

As a new translation of Thucydides’s The History of the Peloponnesian War (by Robin Waterfield) is published, the classicist Professor Paul Cartledge explains why this ancient text has remained essential reading for military leaders and politicians for centuries. Thucydides’s account of the war between Athens and Sparta that began in 431 BCE depicts the devastation of civil war and reflects on the nature of political power".*

Producer: Katy Hickman

*Yanis Varoufakis on Greece’s civil war, Start of the Week, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002kfpg

Picture; Spain Fights for Independence, For Peace and Solidarity Among All Peoples, G. M. 1936-39 from The Palette and the Flame, 1980