Customer Reviews

Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For those familiar with the work of Michael Foucault, this work is a little problematic. It basically picks up where Foucault's "The Birth of the Prison" and "The History of Sex" and his other curious titles leave off. Foucault's technique was to examine not the high-falutin literature of the past, or the documents of the haute bourgeoisie, but to look at ordinary systems and attitudes and uncover an archaeology of knowledge and a clearer map of ancient times from alternate perspectives. Because Foucault's technique was subversive, speculative, and academically suspect, many of his conclusions were controversial and his reputation binary. His taste for rough trade and bathhouses didn't help.

Enter Vicki Leon, who does a Studs Terkel ("Working") on the past.

Which is why this is such an excellent book. Leon strips away Foucault's tendency for obfuscation to sound profound (and his rather specialized taste for the louche and bizarre), and doesn't stoop to Terkel's socialist "history" as oppressor and inescapable condition.

Leon's prose is also better than journalists, which makes this a fun read. She doesn't do an exhaustive treatment of jobs in the past: tallow wright (someone who renders cowfat for candles and soap) and grease monkey (a usually samll boy sailor who greased oar gunnels) aren't here. But the ancient world's professions are on full display. My favourites included are: vicarious, nomenclator, fishmonger, purple seller (biblical!), sycophants (yikes), orgy planners, beast supplier, postal worker (now you'll know how going postal originated) and my favourite....psychopompus.

If there is any quibble here (and there really aren't any) Leon is a bit better at jobs typically held by females rather than males: the lives of soldiers, sailors, roughnecks, stevedores, etc. are relatively thin compared to vestal virgins.

This is an excellent, always interesting, highly readable, fun book in the vain of popular economics books sold in airports the world over. Leon is going to make a zillion dollars.

Vicki Leon's "Working IX to V" is not a history of wars and rulers. Instead, it looks at, as its subtitle proclaims, "Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World". In other words, it looks at the jobs performed by ancient Greeks and Roman to keep their world running on a day-to-day (or night-to-night) basis. It's a book made for great browsing if you are not in the mood or have the time available for a straight-through reading. The tone is light and breezy, but Ms. Leon's lively prose conveys a sense of authenticity.

Very light in tone; much of information selected for humor. Minor errors of fact. Major problem is that very little substantive information on any occupation. Span of occupations is some 400 BC to 400 AD which destroys most useful value. No real discussion of employment, wages, etc.

This could have been a really useful book; unfortunately, it isn't. Most annoyingly, the author often lapses into a kind of 'Valley Girl' English that will drive the reader crazy; it is as if she is frightened of sounding intelligent, so whenever she does (and she can write quite clearly) she has to throw in a flippy, with-it word or two; this succeeds in making everything sound stupid. There are also a lot of avoidable mistakes: in the short note on die engravers she says that Kimon's facing head of Arethusa was on a 10 rather than a 4-drachm piece, that Hercules wrestles a lion on a coin of Kyme (he doesn't) and that a head of Lysimachos is on a coin of Pergamum (nope, it's Seleukos I); elsewhere she has Septimius Severus ruling in 190. In short, it is a pity but you can't trust the facts in this book.

The subtitle says it all, except that not all the professions are prized - silver mining, for instance, done by slaves who spent their days on their backs in a "coffin-sized hole" and had a life span of three months, or the hordes of free-born laborers needed for everything from carrying stones to loading ships who earned their daily bread and little else.

But Leon manages to cover a broad range of professions from slave-driver and gladiator to dream incubators and sycophants (who informed on fig smugglers) who have no counterpart in today's world as well as many others that will be around forever in one form or another.

Entries are brief and breezy, but very informative. Leon organizes her jobs and avocations in categories - Slave jobs (the best ones are in aristocratic homes), temple and entertainment jobs, food professions, law and order, entertainment and the arts, etc., giving her sections such titles as "Small-time Operators, Corporate Rackets," and "Doomed Careers and Deathless Pursuits."

There are also brief profiles throughout of people who excelled in one way or another at their posts.

Leon's relentlessly droll style grows a little wearing but she does pack an amazing amount of information in this well-organized, broad-ranging collection, giving a lively, detailed picture of teeming life in the ancient world.

This book does not merit a long review. (My original review is now the title of this review. Evidently Amazon doesn't like four or five word reviews.)

If you are looking for an "everyman's world-view" of ancient Rome, both Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day and A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome: Daily Life, Mysteries, and Curiosities are much better researched and written.

I bought the book to learn about these various ancient occupations. But the book is so laced with cuteness and hipness that I can't rely on it being accurate. It also mingles Greek and Roman history with little discrimination. Disappointed.Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World

Although I was distracted by the writers humor and neglect for vital specifics (all of this which at times lead me to question accuracy and raise the possibility of her, "filling in the blanks"), overall it is an entertaining read. It found its 4 star rating simply because it makes excellent bathroom read, in fact every person can pick it up and digest its quick and easy to read bursts of historical recounts. But I doubt I will buy another work by the author.

I picked this book up because of the clever title, but it is a revelation. Leon takes what could be a very dry topic, and presents it in an entertaining, yet erudite way. The entries are well-researched and genuinely informative. Ancient history has been a lifelong interest, but I've learned much from this book. An overarching theme is how similar the ancients were to us, and it works. People are people across the centuries.
The interior illustrations are excellent, and the captions are often very funny. A bit bawdy at times, but nothing beyond PG-13.
Excellent puns too.
Leon's empathic heart is in the right place.

I'm really enjoying this book. It's light and informative, with plenty of great stories and spotlights on personalities. It's a fun filled window into the past that never comes off musty or like a history lesson. But oh, you'll learn plenty of history; it just won't feel like you are being forced to learn it. It's more like a pleasant conversation about history with a good friend and a glass of wine. I'd not only recommend this I'd give it to a friend as a give.

Osk