The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization"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."--Jacket. |
Contents
Agrarianism Ancient and Modern | 1 |
THE RISE OF SMALL FARMERS IN ANCIENT GREECE | 23 |
The Rise of Intensive Greek Agriculture | 47 |
Copyright | |
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Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Victor Davis Hanson Limited preview - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
acres ancient Greek Arist aristocratic Aristophanes Aristotle armies armor Athenian democracy Athens Attica Boeotia citizens Classical Colum countryside crops cultivation culture Dark Ages early Greek economic egalitarian elite entire farm farmland fifth and fourth fifth century fighting fourth century fruit geƓrgoi grapes Greece Greek agrarian Greek city-states Greek farmers Greek hoplite Greek literature Greek polis Greek warfare Hanson harvest Hellenistic Hesiod Hodkinson Homer hoplite hoplite battle hoplite warfare ideology infantry Isager and Skydsgaard labor Laertes land landless landowners late fifth later Mantineia mesoi middle military modern Mycenean notion orchards peasant Peloponnesian Peloponnesian War Persian Persian Wars phalanx Plato plots Plut poleis polis period political poor population Pritchett production residence rural Rust slaves small farmers social soil Spartan tactics Theophr Theophrastus Thuc Thucydides timocracy tion traditional trees and vines urban vineyard wealthy Xenophon yeomen zeugitai