Peasant-Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian DemocracyThe controversial thesis at the center of this study is that, despite the importance of slavery in Athenian society, the most distinctive characteristic of Athenian democracy was the unprecedented prominence it gave to free labor. Wood argues that the emergence of the peasant as citizen, juridically and politically independent, accounts for much that is remarkable in Athenian political institutions and culture. From a survey of historical writings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the focus of which distorted later debates, Wood goes on to take issue with recent arguments, such as those of G.E.M. de Ste Croix, about the importance of slavery in agricultural production. The social, political and cultural influence of the peasant-citizen is explored in a way which questions some of the most cherished conventions of Marxist and non-Marxist historiography. This book will be of great interest to ancient historians, classicists, anthropologists and political theorists, as well as to a wider reading public. |
Contents
The Myth of the Idle Mob | 5 |
Slavery and the PeasantCitizen | 42 |
The Polis and the PeasantCitizen | 81 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Peasant-Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy Ellen Meiksins Wood Limited preview - 2015 |
Peasant-Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy Ellen Meiksins Wood Limited preview - 2015 |
Peasant-Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy Ellen Meiksins Wood Limited preview - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
agricultural slavery ancient Greece appropriation argues argument aristocratic Aristotle Athenian culture Athenian democracy Attic banausic Bronze Age Burckhardt chattel slavery citizens citizenship classical Athens Cleisthenes concept contrast corvée countryside craftsmen Croix deme democratic demos dependence distinction dominant economy eleutheria eleutheros especially evidence example existed exploitation fact farm farmers freedom Fustel G.E.M. de Ste Greece and Rome Greek helots Hesiod hired labour Homeric household Ibid idle mob important Jameson juridical kind land landowners leasing least limited Lysias M.I. Finley means Mencius military Mitford modern Montesquieu Mycenaean myth Osborne passage peasant peasant-citizen peasantry perhaps Plato polis political poor principle production Protagoras question refers regime relations rich Roman Rome ruling sense servants simply slaves smallholders social society Solon Sparta status subsistence suggests surplus technical innovations technological tenants traditional unfree labour University Press village wage-labour wealth Xenophon