Making Time for the Past
Local History and the Polis
ISBN13: 9780199291083ISBN10: 019929108X
Hardback,
480 pages
Also available:
Paperback
May 2008,
In Stock
Price:
$165.00 (06)Description
This book has two main and connected themes - the conception and articulation of time in the Greek world and the creation of history, especially in the context of the Greek city. Both how time is expressed and how the past is presented have often been seen as reflections of society. By looking at the construction of the past through the medium of local historiography, where we can view these issues in the relatively restricted world of individual city-states, we can gain a clearer insight into how different versions of the past and different constructions of time were offered to the community for approval. In this way, the citizens were able to negotiate time past and indeed their own history, and thereby to express their values and aspirations.Features
- Addresses issues of wide general interest, such as time as a social construct
- The first study of the ancient world which explicitly treats the key methodological question of the use of formal time systems in the writing of history.
- Brings together a huge range of material - both well-known and neglected historiographical texts, whole and fragmentary, and the writings of local as well as universal historians.
About the Author(s)
Katherine Clarke teaches mostly late republican and early imperial Roman History, covering the fascinating period of dynamic change during which Rome moved from a relatively democratic form of rule to the monarchical power of, albeit often benevolent, emperors. She has published extensively on the works of Roman historians such as Tacitus and Polybius.
