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The Other Greeks

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization
The Other Greeks.jpg
Cover of the first edition
Author Victor Davis Hanson
Country United States
Language English
Subject Archaic Greece
Published 1995 (University of California Press)
Pages 596
ISBN

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization is a 1995 book by Victor Davis Hanson, in which Hanson describes the underlying agriculturally centered laws, warfare, and family life of the Greek Archaic or polis period. Hanson's central argument is that the Greeks who farmed the countrysides of the Greek Archaic period ("the Other Greeks") are responsible for the rise of representative governments, promotion of the middle class, amateur militias composed of citizens, and other values of Western Culture, not the widely written about Greek intelligentsia. The Other Greeks differs from typical historical analyses due to its inclusion of Hanson's own farming experiences as a viticulturalist in Southern California. As such, Hanson's tone may be compared to an introductory college lecture as he is trying to reach both academics and the casual reader. Another of Hanson's goals is to connect the rises and falls of varying governments to the degree to which homesteading is a widespread practice among the populace.

Hanson argues that the Archaic Greek city-state or polis was an institution that grew out of the intensive farming of Greek countryside at the end of Greek Dark Ages. During Archaic Greece, the Greek yeomen had roughly the same amount of land, the same interests, and the same purchasing power. It is this group of free farmers who work their own land in mass that create the constitutional governments of the poleis (city-states). These poleis then primarily functioned to foster the practice of intensive farming by the voting class. At the end of Archaic preiod and the beginning of Classical times, the veneration of individuality and equality had destroyed the very system of government it created. The book is divided into three sections: 1 - The Rise of The Small Farmer in Ancient Greece, 2 - The Preservation of Agrarianism, and 3 - To Lose a Culture.

Part one discusses post- Mycenean Greece (1100 BC). Hanson argues that after the fall of Mycenean Greece, that Greece was decentralized, and people in an effort to feed themselves, turned to homesteading. Documents from the time show that the size of the Greek yeoman farm was roughly equal. This rough equality in farm size translated to a rough equality in material wealth and created a citizenry neither poor nor wealthy but situated in the middle of their society. Additionally, the daily struggle of the small farmer against nature created a shared sense of comradery among the yeomen due to the similarity of their experiences.


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