Athenian Legacies

"Athenian Legacies demonstrates how the people of one influential political community rebuilt their democratic government, rewove their social fabric, and, through thick and thin, went on together. The book's essays address amnesty, civic education, and institutional innovation in early Athens, a city that built and lost an empire while experiencing plague, war, economic trauma, and civil conflict." "As Josiah Ober demonstrates, Athenians became adept at collective survival. They conjoined a cultural commitment to government by the people with new institutions that captured the social and technical knowledge of a diverse population to recover from revolution, foreign occupation, and the ravages of war." "Ober provides insight into notorious instances of Athenian injustice, explaining why slaves, women, and foreign residents willingly risked their lives to support a regime in which they were systematically mistreated. He answer the question of why Socrates never left a city he said was badly governed. How could a philosopher regard the laws of Athens as worthy of loyalty after being unjustly convicted of impiety?" "At a time when social scientists debate the cultural grounding neces