Athenian Democratic Origins by G E M De Ste Croix

Athenian Democratic Origins by G E M De Ste Croix

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Summary

This is a defence of the Athenian democracy by a great radical historian. Geoffrey de Ste. Croix shows how even its oddest features made sense, and illustrates the different factors influencing Athenian politics - for instance, trade and commercial interests mattered very little. Though written in the 1960s, these hitherto unpublished essays remain fresh and innovative.

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Athenian Democratic Origins by G E M De Ste Croix

In these interconnected essays the late Geoffrey de Ste. Croix defends the institutions of the Athenian democracy, showing that they were much more practical, rational, and impartial than has usually been acknowledged. A major essay provides a new view of Aristotle's use of sources in The Constitution of the Athenians, on which so much of our knowledge of Athenian constitutional history depends. Ste. Croix also argues that commercial factors had much less influence on Greek politics than modern scholars tend to assume, and that there was no such thing in any Greek state as a `commercial aristocracy'. As always, he works out these general positions with the utmost lucidity and pungency, and in meticulous detail. Though written in the 1960s, these hitherto unpublished essays by a great radical historian will still constitute a major contribution to contemporary debate. The editors and other specialists have supplied an updating Afterword to each chapter, and the book contains a thorough index.
Review from previous edition an unusual book on every level.. Here then are missing pieces of two interconnected jigsaws: one, that of the intellectual biography of one of the most striking figures in classical scholarship in the second half of the twentieth-century; the other, that of his contributions to 'Athenian Democratic Origins' and other problems in Greek history ... anyone with a serious interest in either or both of these fields will rejoice in this volume and be grateful to its editors for allowing us to hear again the inimitable scholarly voice of Geoffrey Ernest Maurice de Ste. Croix. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
no serious reader, converted or not, could emerge unimpressed by the sheer command of evidence and calibre of argument on display here. [Chapter 1 is] the jewel of the volume. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
The late Geoffrey de Ste. Croix was Fellow of New College, Oxford. Robert Parker is Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, University of Oxford. David Harvey was formerly Lecturer in Classics, University of Exeter.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780199285167
ISBN 10 0199285160
Title Athenian Democratic Origins
Author G E M De Ste Croix
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Oxford University Press
Year published 2005-08-11
Number of pages 480
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable