M. I. FinleyBesprekingen

A good book to read before a trip to this island.

A good, basic introduction to Greek culture, a nice review.

I read this book for the first time 12 years ago. I always remembered this as one of the most interesting history books I read. Now that I re-read the book, I am not disappointed. I find fascinating how M. I Finley uses concepts developed in anthropology to analyse Homer.

Not too much to say here: no doubt this is slightly out of date, but Finley is so cautious--he's perfectly willing to say that we don't know this or that, rather than make uneducated guesses--that I doubt he steers us wrong too much. Otherwise, this is an ideal book on ancient Greece for me personally, since I can't handle the self-congratulatory liberal cheer-leading that goes on every time anyone talks about classical Greece. This book ends before classical Greece. Q.E.D.

collection of essays on topics that intrigued Prof. Finley. The book is still in print today, and the questions continue to invite investigation.½

A good overview of Early Greece from the Bronze Age through to the Archaic eras based on academic and archaeological understanding at the time (i.e. early 1970's). Many of the authors interpretations still stand however findings in the intervening years have shed a different light on this early period of history e.g. dark age Crete post the palace complex phase. The final chapters dedicated to Sparta, Athens and Archaic Culture in Greece are a little underwhelming and fail to give the reader a good understanding on the actual society and reflected archaeological record, becoming little more than an opinion piece of the key political figures of the period.

Shows how Homer reflects a time closer to his own century than to the time several hundred years earlier that the real events actually occurred.
Read in Samoa Mar 2003

A collection of Finley's 14 most important essays on the social and economic conditions of antiquity -- a useful reference for academic specialists.

The essays are organized around 3 topics: the ancient polis, slavery and dependent labor, and the Mycenaean and Homeric worlds.

I particularly liked the essay comparing the Greek conception of freedom with that of John Stuart Mill and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

This collection covers subjects from Athenian imperialism to Homeric marriage. Two themes stand out: the relationship of social values to economic activity, and the analysis of antiquity's stratification system.

A school text, but useful for a rounded picture of the society. A good deal more informative than the movie series starting with "The 300".
Finley was an American scholar at Rutgers who was chased from the USA by the Red Scare of the Early-Mid 1950's. He changed his name ans found work in Britain, much to their credit.½

I originally purchased this book when I started college to prepare for my Senior Oral Exam, I skimmed but didn't really retain much of each writer's style save perhaps Herodotus. After thoroughly reading the excerpted selections for these four writers, I can say the my decision to skim it originally was the correct one. If M. I. Finley, the selector of this volume, gave an accurate representation of each writer through the excerpts he chose then Herodotus and Xenophon are the best readings while Thucydides gets bogged down in speeches and Polybius in the discourse of governmental comparisons. However if the excerpts aren't representative of each writer than the fault is with Finley.

Ah, for the golden age of academic writing. Is it beautiful? No. But it is clear, concise and argumentative. No 'pointing out a problem' stuff here; Finley just gives you the answers as he sees them. You'll be in no doubt as to what he thinks at any stage in your reading. For instance, "the historian of ideas and values has no more Satanic seducer to guard against than the man on the Clapham omnibus." Love it.
But this isn't popular history by any means, for good and bad. There are no catchy anecdotes, no sex and murder stories. It's just a solid suggestion of what a world looked like, in this case, the 'Dark Ages' in the eastern Mediterranean, after the Mycenaeans and before the time the Homeric poems were coming together. Basically, not very attractive.
As a side note, I should say that I was biased in favor of liking this book after I found out some of Finley's life story. According to wikipedia:

"He taught at Columbia University and City College of New York, where he was influenced by members of the Frankfurt School who were working in exile in America. In 1952, during the Red Scare, Finley was fired from his teaching job at Rutgers University; in 1954, he was summoned by the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and asked whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party USA. He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer."

He was fired at the end of the year and could never work in the U.S. again. A political martyr who ended up becoming a British citizen and getting knighted, after hanging out with the Frankfurters in New York? That's my kind of man.

The ancient Greeks by Professor M. I. Finley is a very brief introduction to the Greeks and their life, politics, architecture and art beginning with the dark ages of Homer to the archaic, classical, hellenistic and roman periods. There are several maps as well as plates of illustrations (sadly in black and white) of art and architecture. The author includes an extensive set of notes on the plates, a chronological table of ancient Greece, and an index. Although there are few footnotes (and those indicate source of quoted material), there is a section of further reading current to the early 1960s. Finley writes in an informal manner and gives definitions where necessary.

The author is quite clear that this is a quick introduction to the subject and, for more intensive study, other works should be consulted. I used this book as a supplementary college textbook years ago and found it just as interesting reading the second time around. I can recommend it for someone who wants to understand the Greeks without reading dense scholarly material.½

A good book on ancient slavery, but the "modern ideology" part was quite thin in my opinion. Those who have read Finley before will immediately recognize his style. You need a bit of background knowledge to follow his arguments, but that's the way it should be in a general book about ancient slavery. His awareness of the limits of historical evidence makes this a good counterweight to the overreaching interpretations offered in many other works in ancient history. The book is 150 pages long and the first 60 pages consist of a chapter on "modern ideology", which is really just a review of the historiography of ancient slavery from the 18th century to the 20th. I didn't quite understand the purpose of this chapter and found it tediously dry. But the other parts of the book, where the author presents his own views on ancient slavery, were much more interesting.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1980032.html

A Penguin collection of extracts from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Polybius, showing the start and early evolution of historical writing. As I am less familiar than I would like with the historical background, a lot of this sailed over my head (I would have liked more footnotes and maps), but I appreciated the raw approach of Herodotus, the critical attitude of all of them to other writers (not that this stopped them making stuff up themselves) and the closing passage from Polybius comparing the Roman constitution with the constitutions of less successful states (he singles out Rome's institutionalisation of religion as a key factor).

An attempt to recreate the world of the Homeric epics from clues contained within the epics themselves. I found this most interesting book, since I tend to use ancient literature for similar ends. His contention that the oral tradition behind the epics represents the Dark Age Greece, rather than the Mycenaean era is well supported and well argued. He draws on archaeology occasionally, but mostly relies on the epics themselves.

This is a collection of essays on ancient history, the methodology of history and on some additional miscellaneous topics by Moses Finley. I enjoyed the first 6 essays, but the other 6 were just a bit too specialized or dealt with topics which weren't of much interest to me. If you have read Finley before and like his style, this one is worth reading as well. If not, you might want to look at his Ancient Economy, Ancient Politics or Ancient History: Evidence and Models before this one.

A readable summary of knowledge as it stood at the time of publication of this work. It ranges from the stone ages to Archaic Greece, i.e. before the Classical Period in the 5th century B.C. It touches on most aspects of early Greece - the civilization of Crete, the Cyclades, Cyprus, Mycenae, the rise of Athens and Sparta are included. Archaeology is used to help broaden out knowledge of these early periods, as well as Greek texts for the later periods. A bibliography is provided which gives an indication of the state of scholarship at the time.

A surprisingly interesting book, given its title. The main argument is that modern theories of economics don't aways apply. The author keeps the social and world view of the ancients themselves firmly in the forefront, discussing topics such as agriculture, trade, provincial administration, etc. Deals mainly with the Greek and Roman worlds particularly Classical Greece and Imperial Rome.

A sensible book on economic life in ancient Greece and Rome. As always with Finley, he carefully emphasizes how limited the historical evidence is on these topics, how limited the reach of historians' conclusions consequently should be and how modern concepts like "economics" easily become anachronistic when applied to the ancient world. Such lessons are in my opinion an important part of understanding ancient history.

I read this after rereading Homer...great commentary..wish I had this when in college.

Everyone with an interest in ancient history should read this book. It clearly illustrates how research practice in ancient history differs from that of modern history. A good antidote for naive realists who believe that historians always discover the past 'as it really was'.

Spécialiste de la Grèce antique, Moses Finley revient sur les principales caractéristiques des premiers Jeux Olympiques. Programme, préparation, calendrier, patriotisme, origine des épreuves, évolution, vous apprendrez l'essentiel de ce qu'il faut savoir concernant ces manifestations.
Le livre, très court, est organisé de manière thématique. Il résume ses arguments et ses exemples au point de survoler quelque peu son sujet. Les points de convergence et de divergence entre les Jeux antiques et les Jeux modernes ne sont pas abordés mais transparaissent, de manière sous-jacente, dans le propos de Finley.
Une petite synthèse sans prétention qui eclaircira les idées de l'amateur de sport.

Greci e cartaginesi: una presenza forte nelle origini e nell'orgoglio di molti siciliani.

Excellent and seminal introduction into the world of Homer's poems. At times, Finley draws conclusions on scant evidence.

A little outdated, but amazingly relevant and Finley was obviously a formidable scholar. This almost reads like 5 short essays, but gives insightful discussion of the family, wealth, gift giving, Homeric divinity and the methodology of the bard in Greek society. Nice to read something classical again, it has been a while!