The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests [Paperback]

Geoffrey E. Maurice Ste. Croix (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 732 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (August 3, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801495970
• ISBN-13: 978-0801495977
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #905,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enormous work of challenging scholarship, April 17, 2000

By 

William "williamnedblake" (Kansas City, MO, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests (Paperback)

When I first learned of 'The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World', a decade ago, I was an undergraduate studying the Greek world for the first time. The idea of such an enormous work of scholarship was intriguing, and, when I ran across the book several years later, I bought it without hesitation. Now, ten years on, I can say with some degree of certainty why this book is so highly regarded, even by those who find it philosophically untennable.

G. E. M. de Ste. Croix has synthesised a remarkable and different view of ancient history, applying Marxist principles of interpretation to everything that is known about the people and events of the ancient world. The result is a staggering volume, not only in terms of the size of the book (more than seven hundred pages), but its content. In the book he sets out to demonstrate that key events in the history of the Greek and Roman worlds were driven by factors which, although perhaps not centrally causal, were at least in part created as a result of a struggle of class against class in the ancient world. Certainly, the book is more richly documented than many works which one reads on similar subjects, and it needs to be, in order to support the ultimate contention that the Roman Empire fell, at least in part, due to the exploitation of the masses, just as the death of Greek (Athenian) democracy in the fourth century weakened the central powers of Greece to such an extent that they could no longer resist Rome. There is quite clearly a Marxist perspective given here, and it makes for fascinating argument.

Whether or not you support the ideological approach to history espoused by G.E.M. de Ste. Croix or not, to dismiss 'The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World' as outmoded or passé is to do a great disservice to both scholars and students. I cannot conclude better than Bernard Knox did in his original review of the book when he said, simply: 'The ancient historian who fails to consult this book does so at his peril.' If you read ancient history, or are absorbed by questions of the past, then this book should be a high priority for your library.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marxist interpretation of the Ancient World, February 24, 2007

By 

C. E. R. Mendonça "Carlos Eduardo Rebello de ... (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests (Paperback)

In the annals of Marxist historiograph, I believe this book could and should be ranked among the modern classics, that's to say on the same level as, e.g., Isaac Deutscher's Trotsky biography. Sainte-Croix uses and applies Marxist concepts in order to get rid of vulgar quasi-Marxist interpretations and notions about the Ancient world such as "merchant capital", "Roman and/or Greek middle class" and the like. In passing, he has submitted conservative historiography to a throughly critique. By so doing, he has sorted the wheat from the chaff and held the field almost solely for the last twenty-five years. Unfortunately, he has not come to grips which postmodern historiography proposing a non-class, anti-marxist interpretation to Ancient history, such as Paul Veyne's _Bread & Circuses_ (in its way, a work to rival Sainte-Croix's). But then, something had to be left for posterity to do, isn't it?

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterful Analysis, June 29, 2006

By 

Bob Berkowitz (Miami, Fl) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests (Paperback)

This is a superb analysis of the too-often ignored class aspect of the nations that dominated the Ancient World. G.E.M. De Ste Croix's compassion for the downtrodden and the oppressed make themselves evident to the reader almost immediately. You are missing out on an awful lot if you willfully ignore one of the great historical masterpieces of the ancient world; particularly of the ancient Greeks.

This book is highly-fascinating and revealing and is bound to even make the most serious students of ancient history pause for a second to consider some of the powerful arguments and findings that are made throughout this brilliant study. Who says history must be boring? Thanks to truly great, unconventional minds like Ste Croix, it does not have to be: This is not a story of rulers and Kings; emperors and armies, but of people and of humanity.

I give this book my highest recommendation.