Christian Meier

The definitive account of Athens in the age of Pericles, Christian Meier's gripping study begins with the Greek triumph over Persia at the Battle of Salamis, one of the most significant victories in history. Meier shows how that victory decisively established Athens' military dominance in the Mediterranean and made possible its rise to preeminence in almost every field of human endeavor - commerce, science, philosophy, art, architecture, and literature. Within seventy-five years, Athens had become the most original and innovative civilization the ancient world ever produced. Meier traces the birth of democracy and the flourishing of Greek culture in the fifth century B.C., as well as Athens' slow decline and defeat in the Peloponnesian War.

The book takes us on a tour through the rich spectrum of Greek life and culture, from their epic and lyric poetry, political thought and philosophy, to their social life, military traditions, sport, and religious festivals, and finally to the early stages of Greek democracy. Running as a connecting thread throughout is a people's attempt to create a society based upon the concept of freedom rather than naked power.

Dieser Sammelband, der sich grundlegenden Fragen - nicht nur der Alten Geschichte - widmet, ist ein gelungenes Beispiel dafür, welche fruchtbaren Beiträge, die sowohl in die eigene Disziplin reichen als auch weit in andere hineinwirken, gelingen, wenn interdisziplinäre, zum Teil auch eng an die oft geschmähte, weil programmatisch ausgerichtete Drittmittelforschung gebundene, Forschergruppen zusammenwirken.

"In contemplating fundamental questions about history and the Western legacy, the noted classical historian Christian Meier offers a new interpretation on how we view the world." "Meier sees an "absence" of history in contemporary Europe and throughout the West - an absence he attributes to the way modern historians have written about history and, more important, to the dramatic transformations of the twentieth century. He argues for the central legacy of Western civilization. He tackles the difficulty of reconciling a historical perspective with our era of extreme acceleration, when experience is shaped less by inheritance and legacy than by the novelty of changes wrought by science and globalization. Finally, Meier contemplates the enormity of the Holocaust, which he sees as a test of "understanding" history. If it is part of the whole arc of the Western legacy, how do we fit it with the rest?" "This meditation challenges us to rethink the role of history in Western culture and a changing world."--Jacket.