The Other Greeks : The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization

Victor Davis Hanson

ISBN 10: 0520209354 / ISBN 13: 9780520209350

Published by University Of California Press Dez 1999, 1999

About this Item

Neuware - This book claims that agrarianism was the first cause of the classical Greek achievement, that the family farm was the most fundamental thing the Greeks invented, and productive of most of their other inventions and discoveries.

Seller Inventory # 9780520209350

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Other Greeks : The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization
• Publisher: University Of California Press Dez 1999
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520209354
• ISBN 13: 9780520209350
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 31D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 31 millimeters depth
• Weight: 508 grams

About this title

Synopsis

For generations, scholars have focused on the rise of the Greek city-state and its brilliant cosmopolitan culture as the ultimate source of the Western tradition in literature, philosophy, and politics. This passionate book leads us outside the city walls to the countryside, where the vast majority of the Greek citizenry lived, to find the true source of the cultural wealth of Greek civilization. Victor Hanson shows that the real "Greek revolution" was not merely the rise of a free and democratic urban culture, but rather the historic innovation of the independent family farm.

The farmers, vinegrowers, and herdsmen of ancient Greece are "the other Greeks," 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. Hanson's reconstruction of ancient Greek farm life, informed by hands-on knowledge of the subject (he is a fifth-generation California vine- and fruit-grower) is fresh, comprehensive, and absorbing. 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-the imminent extinction of the family farm.

About the Author

Victor Davis Hanson is Professor of Classics at California State University, Fresno, and author of Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece (Revised edition, California 1998),The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece (1986), and Fields Without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea (1996).