The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins and Grand Strategy

The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins and Grand Strategy

by Paul Anthony Rahe
The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins and Grand Strategy

The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins and Grand Strategy

by Paul Anthony Rahe

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Overview

“[A] monumental history . . . explaining . . . how Sparta’s early strategic role in the Greek world was inseparable from the uniqueness of its origins and values.” (David Hanson, The Hoover Institution, author of The Other Greeks)

For centuries, ancient Sparta has been glorified in song, fiction, and popular art. Yet the true nature of a civilization described as a combination of democracy and oligarchy by Aristotle, considered an ideal of liberty in the ages of Machiavelli and Rousseau, and viewed as a forerunner of the modern totalitarian state by many twentieth-century scholars has long remained a mystery. In a bold new approach to historical study, noted historian Paul Rahe attempts to unravel the Spartan riddle by deploying the regime-oriented political science of the ancient Greeks, pioneered by Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Polybius, in order to provide a more coherent picture of government, art, culture, and daily life in Lacedaemon than has previously appeared in print, and to explore the grand strategy the Spartans devised before the arrival of the Persians in the Aegean.

“Persuasive.” —Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times Book Review

“Rahe thinks and writes big. . . . The Spartan Regime breaks important new ground.” —Jacob Howland, Commentary

“An important new history. . . . The story of this ancient clash of civilizations, masterfully told by Paul Rahe . . . provides a timely reminder about strategic challenges and choices confronting the United States.” —John Maurer, Claremont Review of Books

“Rahe’s ability to reveal the human side beneath [an] austere exterior is one of many reasons to read this beautifully written, meticulously researched, and deeply engaging book.” —Waller R. Newell, Washington Free Beacon

“A serious scholarly endeavor.” —Eric W. Robinson, American Historical Review


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300224610
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 06/24/2022
Series: Yale Library of Military History
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 231
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

Paul A. Rahe is a Rhodes Scholar and the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Professor of History at Hillsdale College, and the author of numerous books including the three-volume Republics Ancient and Modern. He lives in Hillsdale, MI.

Table of Contents

List of Maps ix

Introduction: The Allure of Lacedaemon xi

Prologue: The Spartan Enigma 1

1 Paideía 7

2 Politeía 36

3 Conquest 64

4 Politics and Geopolitics 95

Conclusion: A Grand Strategy for Lacedaemon 121

Appendix 1 Lana Tenure in Arcnaic Sparta 125

Appendix 2 The Néoi at Sparta 137

List of Abbreviations and Short Titles 139

Notes 143

Author's Note and Acknowledgments 195

Index of Subjects 199

Index of Persons and Places 205

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