In 2005 Zagorin published "Thucydides: An Introduction for the Common Reader" (2005), a non-specialist work on Thucydides's "History of the Peloponnesian War". Zagorin argues the work is more than a mere chronicle of the conflict between Athens and Sparta, being also a story of politics, decision-making, the uses of power, and the human and communal experience of war. In his view the work remains of permanent interest because of the exceptional intellect that Thucydides brought to the writing of history, and to the originality and intensity of vision that inform his narrative.