This book asks an important question often ignored by ancient historians and political scientists Why did Athenian democracy work as well and for as long as it did? Josiah Ober seeks the answer by analyzing the sociology of Athenian politics and the nature of communication between elite and nonelite citizens. After a preliminary survey of the development of the Athenian "constitution," he focuses on the role of political and legal rhetoric. As jurymen and Assemblymen, the citizen masses of Athens retained important powers, and elite Athenian politicians and litigants needed to address these large bodies of ordinary citizens in terms understandable and acceptable to the audience. This book probes the social strategies behind the rhetorical tactics employed by elite speakers.
A close reading of the speeches exposes both egalitarian and elitist elements in Athenian popular ideology. Ober demonstrates that the vocabulary of public speech constituted a democratic discourse that allowed the Athenians to resolve contradictions between the ideal of political equality and the reality of social inequality. His radical reevaluation of leadership and political power in classical Athens restores key elements of the social and ideological context of the first western democracy.
Josiah Ober is Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Professor in honor of Constantine Mitsotakis, and Professor of Classics and Political Science, at Stanford University.
Tiddlywinks. Basically... just playing with the tokens or counters (rearranging bits of text) unearthed by other (and real) scholars from 100 years ago ... imposing modern day political categories on ancient and archaic societies (where none of those categories fit or are in the least relevant, a procedure which is then justified by 20 pages of talking about Althusser... (who is equally irrelevant to a study of ancient Athens).
A good example of what passes for the Humanities in this day and age.
But hey..., I'm on Goodreads and he's at Princeton.... so take this magno cum grano salis...
I was very impressed with Ober’s mastery of the source materials and approach to ancient democracy. He shows how it worked and why it proved so efficient.
This book is an excellent introduction to Athenian political forms and realities. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the ancient world, but also to anyone interested in understanding the history of Democracy, its flaws, and its strengths.
Josiah Ober tries so hard to pretend hoplite social structure, or warfare at all, affected Athenian Democracy. And he is very, very wrong to do so. He is a weak writer, and at times I almost fell asleep trying to finish it. I would NOT recommend to anyone who doesn't know enough about ancient Greece to recognize Ober's oversights.
Examines the political dynamics between different classes in democratic Athens, with an emphasis on the role of persuasive speaking in the assembly and the court system.