The Ancient Greeks

New York, NY: NYRB Classics. Near Fine. 1977. Later Edition (1991); Tenth Printing. Paperback. Very Near Fine in Wraps: shows the expected tanning to the text pages due to aging; else flawless; the binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creases to the panels. Free of creases to the backstrip. Free of any creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome, nearly-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing a minor, unobtrusive cosmetic imperfection. Bright and clean. Corners sharp. Very close to "As New". NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (7.75 x 5.15 x 0.6 inches). Notes, Bibliography. Index. Language: English. Weight: 7 ounces. Trade Paperback. Sir Moses Israel Finley FBA (born Finkelstein; 1912 – 1986) was an American-born British academic and classical scholar. His prosecution by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security during the 1950s, resulted in his relocation to England, where he became an English classical scholar and eventually master of Darwin College, Cambridge. His most notable publication was 'The Ancient Economy' (1973) in which he argued that the economy in antiquity was governed by status and civic ideology, rather than rational economic motivations. 'The World of Odysseus' (1954, revised and with additional essays in 1978) proved seminal also. In it, he applied the findings of ethnologists and anthropologists like Marcel Mauss to interpret Homer, a radical method that was thought by his publishers to require a reassuring introduction by an established classicist, Maurice Bowra. Paul Cartledge asserted that "... In retrospect Finley's work can be seen as the seed of the present flowering of anthropologically-related studies of ancient Greek culture and society". Following the example of Karl Polanyi, Finley argued that the ancient economy should not be analysed using the concepts of modern economic science, because ancient man had no notion of the economy as a separate part of society, and because economic actions in antiquity were determined not primarily by economic, but by social concerns. 'The Ancient Greeks' has become a standard introduction to the ancient Greek world for decades of students. The experienced reader won't learn much new by reading this book, but he also won't be bored or feel like the author is speaking down to him either. Like most good books for the lay reader, this book takes some things as already known that may not indeed be known by all readers, like the Iliad and Odyssey, but the amount that is assumed is small enough that even a beginning reader will be comfortable. This book is genuinely comprehensive. I learned new things about founding colonies in the Archaic period and the development of the polis. The Classical period (500 BC - Alexander the Great, died 323 BC) contains most of the great accomplishments in art and philosophy that occurred in ancient Greece (Phidias and the Parthenon, Sophocles, Plato) , and also contains the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War. Finally there is the Hellenistic period (from Alexander the Great to the ends of Ptolemaic Egypt in 31 BC). All of these periods are described at least enough to give the reader an idea what they want to learn next. ; Small 8vo 7½" - 8" tall .