“Kurt Raaflaub's distinguished 'The Ancient World: Comparative Histories' series acquires herewith another eminently worthy member, which bears his personal stamp both as inspirational co-editor and as contributor with a special interest and expertise in ancient Greek politics and political thought. From the sensitive introduction (by another of the co-editors) to the concluding essay on ideas of liberty ancient and modern the multinational cast of leading experts takes the longest possible view of what matters most about the ancient Greeks' invention of democracy from its original location within their peculiar polis state-form to its current, very different receptions around the world today. Students of Sophocles and Aristophanes, and of Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche, among many others, will find their tastes and interests equally well served.” - Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge
The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretationsby Johann P. Arnason
The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy presents a series of essays that trace the Greeks’ path to democracy and examine the connection between the Greek polis as a citizen state and democracy as well as the interaction between democracy and various forms of cultural expression from a comparative historical perspective and with special/i>/i>… See more details below
The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy presents a series of essays that trace the Greeks’ path to democracy and examine the connection between the Greek polis as a citizen state and democracy as well as the interaction between democracy and various forms of cultural expression from a comparative historical perspective and with special attention to the place of Greek democracy in political thought and debates about democracy throughout the centuries.
- Presents an original combination of a close synchronic and long diachronic examination of the Greek polis - city-states that gave rise to the first democratic system of government
- Offers a detailed study of the close interactionbetween democracy, society, and the arts in ancient Greece
- Places the invention of democracy in fifth-century bce Athens both in its broad social and cultural context and in the context of the re-emergence of democracy in the modern world
- Reveals the role Greek democracy played in the political and intellectual traditions that shaped modern democracy, and in the debates about democracy in modern social, political, and philosophical thought
- Written collaboratively by an international team of leading scholars in classics, ancient history, sociology, and political science
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Meet the Author
Johann P. Arnason is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne and visiting professor at the Charles University in Prague. His previous works include Domains and Divisions of European History (with N. Doyle, 2010), The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (with K. Raaflaub, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), and Nordic Paths to Modernity (with B. Wittrock, 2012).
Kurt A. Raaflaub is the David Herlihy University Professor and Professor of Classics and History Emeritus at Brown University. His previous works include Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies (with R. J. A. Talbert, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), Epic and History (with D. Konstan, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (with J. Arnason, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).
Peter Wagner is ICREA Research Professor of Sociological Theory, Philosophy of Law, and Methodology of the Social Sciences, at the University of Barcelona. His previous works include Theorizing Modernity: Inescapability and Attainability in Social Theory (2001), Modernity as Experience and Interpretation (2008), and Modernity: Understanding the Present (2012).
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