The Muse of History : The Ancient Greeks from the Enlightenment to the Present

A Times Literary Supplement Best Book of the Year From “one of the most thoughtful ancient historians in Britain over more than half a century” (Mary Beard) comes a powerful look at how the modern world has understood the ancient Greeks and why their legacy still matters today. “This majestic book by Oswyn Murray has been long and eagerly awaited . . . and its quality and scope exceed expectations.” —Edith Hall, BBC History Magazine The study of ancient Greece has been central to Western conceptions of history since the Renaissance. The Muse of History traces the shifting patterns of this preoccupation, as successive generations reinterpreted the Greeks in light of their contemporary worlds. Thus, in the eighteenth century, the conflict between Athens and Sparta became a touchstone in the development of republicanism, and in the nineteenth, Athens came to represent the democratic ideal. Amid the twentieth century’s ideological conflicts, Greek suffering inspired defenses against nationalism, Nazism, communism, and capitalism. Oswyn Murray draws powerful conclusions from the ever-changing narrative of ancient Greece, in the process illuminating grand theories of human society articulated by the likes of Hegel, Burckhardt, Nietzsche, and Braudel. Along the way, The Muse of History offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of figures who shaped the study of ancient Greece. We sit in on a class with Arnaldo Momigliano; meet Moses Finley after his arrival in England; eavesdrop on Paul Veyne, Jean-Pierre Vernant, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet; and rediscover Michel Foucault. A thrilling work of historiography, The Muse of History reminds us that the meaning of the past is always made in and for the present.