Athenian democratic origins
Subtitle: and other essays
By: G.E.M. de Ste. Croix ; edited by David Harvey and Robert Parker with the assistance of Peter Thonemann.
Contributors: Harvey, David, 1937-; Parker, Robert, 1950-; Thonemann, Peter.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 464
Subjects: Democracy -- Greece -- Athens -- History; Athens (Greece) -- Politics and government
Description: "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 Though written in the 1960s, these hitherto unpublished essays by a great radical historian will still constitute a major contribution to contemporary debate.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."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [441]-446) and index.