Greece in the Making 1200-479 BC

by Robin Osborne

Overview

Greece in the Making 1200–479 BC is an accessible and comprehensive account of Greek history from the end of the Bronze Age to the Classical Period. The first edition of this book broke new ground by acknowledging that, barring a small number of archaic poems and inscriptions, the majority of our literary evidence for archaic Greece reported only what later writers wanted to tell, and so was subject to systematic selection and distortion. This book offers a narrative which acknowledges the later traditions, as traditions, but insists that we must primarily confront the contemporary evidence, which is in large part archaeological and art historical, and must make sense of it in its own terms.

In this second edition, as well as updating the text to take account of recent scholarship and re-ordering, Robin Osborne has addressed more explicitly the weaknesses and unsustainable interpretations which the first edition chose merely to pass over. He now spells out why this book features no ‘rise of the polis’ and no ‘colonization’, and why the treatment of Greek settlement abroad is necessarily spread over various chapters. Students and teachers alike will particularly appreciate the enhanced discussion of economic history and the more systematic treatment of issues of gender and sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415469913
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/17/2009
Series:	The Routledge History of the Ancient World
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

1. The Traditions of History 2. Setting the Stage 3. The Problem of Beginnings 4. Forming Communities: The Eighth Century BC 5. The World of Hesiod and of Homer 6. Reforming Communities: The Seventh Century BC 7. The Greek World in 600BC 8. Inter-Relating Cities: The Short Sixth Century (600–520 BC) 9. The Transformation of Archaic Greece 520–479 BC

Editorial Reviews

'The present second edition...is perhaps the most up-dated and the most systematic of all such syntheses currently available in English.' - Palamedes

From the Publisher

Rather than starting with the traditional beginning of Greek history in 776 BC, Osborne (Corpus Christi College, Oxford) begins with the twelfth through ninth century, a period often neglected by histories of archaic Greece. He shows how history can be written for this period, going beyond tradition and exploiting the literature, art, and archeology of the period. In the process, he presents new information and recent references to the latest scholarship. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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