From one of today's most innovative ancient historians, a provocative new vision of why ancient history matters-and why it needs to be told in a radically different, global way
It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history-obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history-a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.
For Scheidel, ancient history is when the earliest versions of today's ways of life were created and spread-from farming, mining, and engineering to housing and transportation, cities and government, writing and belief systems. Transforming the planet, this process unfolded all over the world, in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas, often at different times, sometimes haltingly but ultimately unstoppably. Yet it's rarely studied or taught that way. Since the eighteenth century, Western intellectuals have dismembered the ancient world, driven not only by their quest for professional expertise but also by nationalism, colonialism, racism, and the idealization of Greece and Rome. Specialized scholarship has fractured into numerous academic niches, obscuring broader patterns and dynamics and keeping us from understanding just how much humanity has long had in common.
The time has come, Scheidel argues, to put the ancient world back together-by moving beyond the limitations of Greco-Roman "classics," by systematically comparing ancient societies, and by exploring early exchanges and connections between them. The time has come, in other words, for an ancient history for everyone.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Compelling. . . . Scheidel has given us much food for thought about our beautiful, magical Antiquity. I recommend. . . everyone who is concerned with Ancient History to purchase this book."---Mark Beumer, Kleio-Historia "A literary hand grenade. . . [Scheidel] calls for a revolution in the teaching of classics. . . unflinching."---Alec Russell, Financial Times "Timely and should be read by all of us...E.H. Carr's What is History? was a seminal though controversial introduction to historiography. Sixty years on What is Ancient History? may prove an equally stirring successor.""---Sir Michael Fallon, Classics for All "Read this book-and engage with its questions, even if you come up with different answers."---Neville Morley, Pasts Imperfect
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 219 mm
Breite: 147 mm
Dicke: 32 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-691-23665-0 (9780691236650)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities and professor of classics and history at Stanford University. His books include Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity and The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (both Princeton).
