Herodotus and the Origins of the Political Community

Herodotus and the Origins of the Political Community PDF Author: Norma Thompson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300062601
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The subtitle of this book is `Arion's Leap' and it is from this example of the puzzling fictionality of some of Herodotus' histories that the author starts her exploration (Arion was the singer who leapt into the sea to escape from Corinthian pirates and was rescued by dolphins). Scholars have long wrestled with Herodotus' practice of placing fanciful stories alongside factual ones, but Thompson suggests that rather than displaying a primitive conception of history, such a practice indicates a profound grasp of political theory and an understanding of the way that central stories can become the core of a political community. This major reconsideration of Herodotus' art draws his work into the modern historical debate, and the author uses the writings of Martin Bernal, Fran�ois Hartog and Edward Said to shed new light on Herodotus' conception of history.

On Politics

On Politics PDF Author: Alan Ryan
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0871404656
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 1147

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Book Description
Looks at the history of politics from Hobbes to the twenty-first century.

Faces of History

Faces of History PDF Author: Donald R. Kelley
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300075588
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
In this book, one of the world's leading intellectual historians offers a critical survey of Western historical thought and writing from the pre-classical era to the late eighteenth century. Donald R. Kelley focuses on persistent themes and methodology, including questions of myth, national origins, chronology, language, literary forms, rhetoric, translation, historical method and criticism, theory and practice of interpretation, cultural studies, philosophy of history, and "historicism." Kelley begins by analyzing the dual tradition established by the foundational works of Greek historiography--Herodotus's broad cultural and antiquarian inquiry and the contrasting model of Thucydides' contemporary political and analytical narrative. He then examines the many variations on and departures from these themes produced in writings from Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian antiquity, in medieval chronicles, in national histories and revisions of history during the Renaissance and Reformation, and in the rise of erudite and enlightened history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Throughout, Kelley discusses how later historians viewed their predecessors, including both supporters and detractors of the authors in question. The book, which is a companion volume to Kelley's highly praised anthology Versions of History from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, will be a valuable resource for scholars and students interested in interpretations of the past.

A History of Histories

A History of Histories PDF Author: John Burrow
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307268527
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Book Description
Treating the practice of history not as an isolated pursuit but as an aspect of human society and an essential part of the culture of the West, John Burrow magnificently brings to life and explains the distinctive qualities found in the work of historians from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks to the present. With a light step and graceful narrative, he gathers together over 2,500 years of the moments and decisions that have helped create Western identity. This unique approach is an incredible lens with which to view the past. Standing alone in its ambition, scale and fascination, Burrow's history of history is certain to stand the test of time.

Herodotean Inquiries

Herodotean Inquiries PDF Author: S. Benardete
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401031614
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Herodotus has so often been called, since ancient times, the father of history that this title has blinded us to the question: Was the father of history an historian? Everyone knows that the Greek word from which 'history' is derived always means inquiry in Herodotus. His so-called Histories are in quiries, and by that name I have preferred to call them. His inquiries partly result in the presentation of events that are now called 'historical'; but other parts of his inquiry would now belong to the province of the anthro pologist or geographer. Herodotus does not recognize these fields as distinct; they all belong equally to the subject of his inquiry, but it is not self-evident what he understands to be his subject: the notorious difficulties in the proemium are enough to indicate this. If his work presents us with so strange a mixture of different fields, we are entitled to ask: Did Herodotus under stand even its historical element as we understand it? Without any proof everyone, as far as I am aware, who has studied him has assumed this to be so.

The Origins of Democratic Thinking

The Origins of Democratic Thinking PDF Author: Cynthia Farrar
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521375849
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Dr Farrar argues that the development of political theory accompanied the growth of democracy at Athens in the fifth century BC. By analysing the writings of Protagoras, Thucydides and Democritus in the context of political developments and speculation about the universe, she reveals the existence of a distinctive approach to the characterisation of democratic order, and in doing so demonstrates the virtues of Thucydides' historical conception of politics.

The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought

The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought PDF Author: Christopher Rowe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521481366
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 784

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Book Description
A definitive reference work on Greek and Roman political thought from the age of Homer to late antiquity, first published in 2000.

History: A Very Short Introduction

History: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: John Arnold
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
ISBN: 019285352X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
Starting with an examination of how historians work, this "Very Short Introduction" aims to explore history in a general, pithy, and accessible manner, rather than to delve into specific periods.

Democracy and the History of Political Thought

Democracy and the History of Political Thought PDF Author: Patrick N. Cain
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793621608
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This volume provides a fresh perspective on current democratic theory and practice by recovering the rich evaluations of democracy in the history of political thought. Each author addresses a single thinker’s reflections on the virtues and defects of democracy and the relationship between democracy and other regimes. Together, these essays explore the tensions within the democratic way of life that arise from an attachment to equality, liberty, citizenship, law, and the divine. Above all, this work aims at recovering a more complex understanding of democracy, connecting the perennial questions of political philosophy to the perplexities and crises of modern democracy.

A History of Political Thought

A History of Political Thought PDF Author: Janet Coleman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0631186522
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This volume continues the story of European political theorising by focusing on medieval and Renaissance thinkers. It includes extensive discussion of the practices that underpinned medieval political theories and which continued to play crucial roles in the eventual development of early-modern political institutions and debates. The author strikes a balance between trying to understand the philosophical cogency of medieval and Renaissance arguments on the one hand, elucidating why historically-suited medieval and Renaissance thinkers thought the ways they did about politics; and why we often think otherwise.

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought PDF Author: Stephen Salkever
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139828029
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought provides a guide to understanding the central texts and problems in ancient Greek political thought, from Homer through the Stoics and Epicureans. Composed of essays specially commissioned for this volume and written by leading scholars of classics, political science, and philosophy, the Companion brings these texts to life by analysing what they have to tell us about the problems of political life. Focusing on texts by Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle, among others, they examine perennial issues, including rights and virtues, democracy and the rule of law, community formation and maintenance, and the ways in which theorizing of several genres can and cannot assist political practice.