The Other Greeks
Title | The Other Greeks PDF eBook |
Author | Victor Davis Hanson |
Publisher | Univ of California Press |
Pages | 600 |
Release | 1999-12-22 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780520209350 |
Victor Hanson shows that the "Greek revolution" was not the rise of a free and democratic urban culture, but rather the historic innovation of the independent family farm."--BOOK JACKET.
Other Greeks
Title | Other Greeks PDF eBook |
Author | Victor Davis Hanson |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Pages | 843 |
Release | 1995-06-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1439105634 |
Everyone has been taught that the Greek city-state is the ultimate source of the Western tradition in literature, philosophy, and politics. For generations, scholars have focused on the rise of the city-state and its brilliant cosmopolitan culture. Now Victor Hanson, the author of several studies of ancient warfare and agriculture, has written a book that will completely change our view of Greek society. For Hanson shows that the real "Greek revolution" was not the rise of a free and democratic urban culture, remarkable as this was, but the historic innovation of the independent family farm. The heroes of his book, therefore, are what he calls "the other Greeks" - the neglected freehold farmers, vinegrowers and herdsmen of ancient Greece who formed the backbone of Hellenic civilization. It was these tough-minded, pracitcal, and fiercely independent agrarians, Hanson contends, who gave Greek culture its distinctive emphasis on private property, constitutional government, contractual agreements, infantry warfare, and individual rights. Hanson's reconstruction of ancient Greek farm life, informed by the hands-on knowledge of the subject (he is a fifth-generation California vine and fruit-grower), is fresh, comprehensive, and totally absorbing. But his detailed chronicle of the rise and tragic fall of the Greek city-state also helps us to grasp the implications of what may be the single most significant trend in American life today - namely, the imminent extinction of the family farm. Since Thomas Jefferson Hanson points out, American democracy has been though to depend on the virtues that have traditionally been bred on the farm: self-reliance, honesty, skepticism, a healthy suspicion of urban sophistication, and a stern ethic of accountability, which, as the Greeks teach us, have always been the core values of democratic citizenship. Hanson rightly fears the consequences for American democracy when the family farm disappears, taking with it our last links to the agrarian roots of Western civilization.
The Other Greeks
Title | The Other Greeks PDF eBook |
Author | Victor Davis Hanson |
Publisher | |
Pages | 592 |
Release | 1995 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN |
Everyone has been taught that the Greek city-state is the ultimate source of the Western tradition in literature, philosophy, and politics. For generations, scholars have focused on the rise of the city-state and its brilliant cosmopolitan culture. Now Victor Hanson, the author of several studies of ancient warfare and agriculture, has written a book that will completely change our view of Greek society. For Hanson shows that the real "Greek revolution" was not the rise of a free and democratic urban culture, remarkable as this was, but the historic innovation of the independent family farm. The heroes of his book, therefore, are what he calls "the other Greeks" - the neglected free-hold farmers, vinegrowers and herdsmen of ancient Greece who formed the backbone of Hellenic civilization. It was these tough-minded, practical, and fiercely independent agrarians, Hanson contends, who gave Greek culture its distinctive emphasis on private property, constitutional government, contractual agreements, infantry warfare, and individual rights.
The Other Greeks
Title | The Other Greeks PDF eBook |
Author | Victor Davis Hanson |
Publisher | Univ of California Press |
Pages | 598 |
Release | 1999-12-22 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0520209354 |
Victor Hanson shows that the "Greek revolution" was not the rise of a free and democratic urban culture, but rather the historic innovation of the independent family farm."--BOOK JACKET.
Greek Ways
Title | Greek Ways PDF eBook |
Author | Bruce S. Thornton |
Publisher | Encounter Books |
Pages | 250 |
Release | 2002-10-31 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1893554570 |
Writing with wit and erudition, Thornton discusses in fascinating detail those areas of Greek life--sexuality and sexual roles; slavery and war; philosophy and politics--that some modern critics have made into Rcontested sites.S He also reclaims the importance of those core ideas the Greeks invented, ideas about human fate and purpose that have shaped the modern world.
On Germans and Other Greeks
Title | On Germans and Other Greeks PDF eBook |
Author | Dennis J. Schmidt |
Publisher | Indiana University Press |
Pages | 364 |
Release | 2001-09-19 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9780253214430 |
Tracing the efforts of philosophers to appropriate the issues opened up by tragedy as a literary form, Dennis Schmidt makes the argument that in the struggle to come to terms with the issues raised by tragedy, new and progressive avenues for addressing the questions of ethic life have come to the fore.
Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Revised edition
Title | Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Revised edition PDF eBook |
Author | Victor Davis Hanson |
Publisher | Univ of California Press |
Pages | 300 |
Release | 1998-10-20 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0520921755 |
The ancient Greeks were for the most part a rural, not an urban, society. And for much of the Classical period, war was more common than peace. Almost all accounts of ancient history assume that farming and fighting were critical events in the lives of the citizenry. Yet never before have we had a comprehensive modern study of the relationship between agriculture and warfare in the Greek world. In this completely revised edition of Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Victor Davis Hanson provides a systematic review of Greek agriculture and warfare and describes the relationship between these two important aspects of life in ancient communities. With careful attention to agronomic as well as military details, this well-written, thoroughly researched study reveals the remarkable resilience of those farmland communities. In the past, scholars have assumed that the agricultural infrastructure of ancient society was often ruined by attack, as, for example, Athens was relegated to poverty in the aftermath of the Persian and later Peloponnesian invasions. Hanson's study shows, however, that in reality attacks on agriculture rarely resulted in famines or permanent agrarian depression. Trees and vines are hard to destroy, and grainfields are only briefly vulnerable to torching. In addition, ancient armies were rather inefficient systematic ravagers and instead used other tactics, such as occupying their enemies' farms to incite infantry battle. Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece suggests that for all ancient societies, rural depression and desolation came about from more subtle phenomena—taxes, changes in political and social structure, and new cultural values—rather than from destructive warfare.