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72 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Foundation of Ancient Greek Culture, June 3, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (Hardcover)
Over the years I have read many books on the ancient world, but always came away dissatisfied, feeling as if I could not quite grasp what these ancient Greeks were all about. Sure, these books all covered the various battles and the struggle with Persia. They all dealt with Athenian democracy, Spartan militarism, and the various philosophical schools. We all know how the Macedonians eventually put an end to "Greek freedom." But just what was it that made these Greeks so different? How and why did they emerge with a polis culture that gave us so much of our Western heritage? Why were these Greeks so different than the orientals and the Romans? Finally, we have a book that goes a long way in explaining what it was that made the ancient Greeks so unique. At last we have a work that provides some answers as to "what these Greeks were all about." I would agree with Donald Kagan who wrote, "The Other Greeks, is the most original and important contribution to an understanding of the ancient Greeks I have ever read." Here Victor Hanson explains how the rise of intensive agriculture and the independent farmer put an end to the Greek Dark Ages and he explains why this was an entirely new phenomenon in history. The rise of the polis, this egalitarian community of farmers now producing its own food, fighting its own wars, and making its own laws was something entirely novel in history. This Greek agrarianism became an ideology that infused Greek life with new energy and creativity. Hanson details how the shift to private ownership and intensive cultivation by individual farmers gave birth to Western values and created the hoplite army. Relying heavily on ancient sources, as well as his personal knowledge of agriculture, he explains how and why the Greek yeoman created the hoplite army and how it functioned. During the polis period there was almost no miltary parasitism in most Greek city-states. But Hanson does not view the polis through rose- colored lenses. He understands that the polis developed during a period when Greece was left alone by other powers around the Mediterranean world. He is aware of its innate conservatism and the fact that it was not "truly" democratic. The rise of Greek agrarianism, after all, did lead to an increase in slavery in the countryside. And lastly, Hanson deals with the decline of the polis in a world where the Greeks were forced to more and more deal with an opened society and international involvement. The Athenians made the most dramatic and remarkable attempt to adapt the polis culture to the needs of the new age, but, ultimately, the agrarian based polis culture was unfit to the requirements of the new world. The problems of new and wider citizenship and international economics found the polis system wanting. The Hellenistic Age and the conquests of Rome were based on the foundations of Greek culture, but in no way did they recreate the city-state life of ancient Greece. Power, wealth and excess were the hallmarks of the succeeding ages. If there is any criticism of the book, and I almost hate to offer it considering the great achievement of Hanson, it is that the writing is often repetitious. The reader should be prepared for this. But, I cannot see how anyone can consider themselves well read in the history and culture of ancient Greek without reading this book and considering the points that Victor Hanson has made. A proper understanding of ancient Greece is impossible without a comprehension of what Hanson has given us. We all owe him much for these insights. This book belongs on the shelf of everyone with an interest in the ancient world and its insights will give you a yardstick by which to evaluate other times and cultures. After all, how people make their living is critical to understanding their time and culture.
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
significant, September 27, 2005
The author of the book claims that the city-states of southern Greece were agrarian democracies the agricultural surplus
of which together with the democratic spirit made possible the birth and growth of philosophy-science, history and art.
Victor Hanson has written a number of wonderful books I have enjoyed in the past; unfortunately this is not one of them
because:
(1) the text is not well worked; he repeats himself in many places
making the text too long for the ideas and analysis it contains;
even a book of half size could make very clearly the points of this book
(2) despite the long text, the author fails to make his case transparent;
for example he does claim that the Persian wars acted like an excitation to the Greek polis that initiated growing resonances that eventually destroyed the fabric of the city state; In his view this made the poleis (Athens in particular)
more capitalistic and urbanised destroying in this way their reliance in terms of economy and military on the agrarian population; once the latter diminished the Greek polis was virtually over;
I do find all these plausible but the author never really answers
successfully the following: when the Atheneans and Thebans
fought the Macedonians at Cheronia they fought an old style hoplite battle; their infantry proved as powerful as during the Persian wars; at the time of their defeat their agrarian population was intact and especially the Theban polis was a typical city state (while Athens admittedly not);
that is the major question of why in the all-Greek struggle for the domination of Greece the Macedonian Kingdom conquered the
Theban-Athenean polis? this question is never answered sufficiently in the text; how could it? the author tried to
do something improbable: to explain the conquest of the city-state (thebans-atheneans) by the kingdmom-state (macedonians) WITHOUT any analysis of the state of Macedon;
He fails gravely because of this: he knows about the Athenean polis much more than about the Macedonian kingdom; as a result he is never convincing in explaining why in the all greek struggle of the 4th century Macedon emerged as a winner.
(3) in order to make his case he exaggerates (non persuasively) at points:
for example his treatment of the Persian wars; reading his text it appears as a miracle that the Greeks prevailed; but miracles
do not happen in real life; especially if they repeat themselves;
Marathon could be a miracle, but Salamis too? and Platae and Mycale and Xenofon's anabasis? The truth is that the Greek phalanx was unstoppable if used efficiently; the Persians lost because wars are decided by infantry and the greek infantry was far superior in open ground;
Overall, i found the text useful but with many important things missing; let us hope that future scholarship will explain
in better terms why the city-state lost to the macedonian kingdom
and (equally important) why the macedonian kingdom (and Greece as a whole) gave in to Rome; understanding these will help us understand better why the city-state collapsed.
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25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Vital in Importance, Disappointing in Quality., January 20, 2001
Hanson's thesis is that the hoplite class of landowning small family farmers originally created the autonomous city-state, in their own image and to serve their own interests, and thus more than anyone else shaped Greek culture from the time of Homer to that of Alexander. It is a pioneering treatment of an immensely important and hitherto scandalously neglected subject, so that this is a "must read" for any student of ancient Greece. I only wish it were a better read. Hanson's own oft-cited membership in the family-farmer class can be an asset, since he illustrates in his own voice the characteristic mindset that he also aims to describe: opinionated, pessimistic, and contemptuous of seemingly all non-agrarian institutions, customs, persons, and ways of thinking. But these mental characteristics are also very limiting. Hanson himself admits as much, applying such terms as "narrow" and "chauvinism" to his ancient predecessors; but to see and acknowledge such limitations in them is not necessarily to transcend them himself. There are several other problems with the book as well. Hanson's passion for his subject all too often overwhelms his organizational planning for the book, as he reiterates favorite points in any and all contexts. He is also excessively given to braving out any inconvenient gap in the available evidence with an imperious "must have" or "could only have". And finally, the dots remain unconnected between the agrarian foundations and the enduring contributions of ancient Greek civilization. At one point, Hanson admits that the artistic and intellectual achievements that we call the "Greek miracle" only arose when and because Athens turned away from the agrarian ideal in various ways. At another, he lists twelve core values that western culture inherited from these ancient agrarians; and though the attribution is plausible enough in this case, the twelve listed values are not what we most treasure in the Greek heritage--except perhaps those among us who regard the Second Amendment as the crown jewel of the Bill of Rights.
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