SOURCE: "Narrative Discourse in Thucydides," in The Greek Historians: Literature and History—Papers Presented to A. E. Raubitschek, Anma Libri, 1985, pp. 1-17.

In the following excerpt, Connor argues that the predominant critical examination of Thucydides as a political scientist and a historical scientist neglects the strength of his narrative technique—and consequently misses "the pleasure of reading" his History.

There are today many signs of a sea change in our understanding of the relationship between literature and history and hence in our understanding of the historians of the past and of historical writing in the present. Lawrence Stone drew attention to some of these signs a few years ago in an essay entitled "The Revival of Narrative" [Past and Present 85 (Nov. 1979)]. Stone argued that there was a "noticeable shift of content, method and style among a very tiny, but disproportionately prominent, section of the historical profession." The change...