Inventing Athens – Tools and Resources

Two good resources for general grounding are the following:

• Burckhardt, Jacob. The Greeks and Greek Civilization. (Oswyn Murray, ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998). Burckhardt expressed a profound historical sympathy into the cultural spirit about which he wrote in these lectures and in all his work.
• Joint Association of Classical Teachers' Greek Course. The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture. 2nd ed. Robin Osborne, reviser, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984, 2008. Any student of classical Athens, whether beginner or advanced, will find this guide useful as a comprehensive overview of Athenian life and culture with well-selected references to further inquiry.

A • Comprehensive studies

• Adkins, A. W. H. From the Many to the One: a Study of Personality and Views of Human Nature in the Context of Ancient Greek Society, Values, and Beliefs. Studies in the Humanities. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970.
• Adkins, A. W. H. Merit and Responsibility; a Study in Greek Values. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960.
• Bachofen, Johann Jakob. Myth, Religion, and Mother Right; Selected Writings of J. J. Bachofen. Bollingen Series, 84. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.
• Beye, Charles Rowan. Ancient Greek Literature and Society. 2nd ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
• Burckhardt, Jacob. The Greeks and Greek Civilization. (Oswyn Murray, ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998).
• Butler, E. M. The Tyranny of Greece over Germany. Cambridge: The University press, 1935.
• Chapman, John Jay. Greek Genius, and Other Essays. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co., 1915.
• Cooper, John M. Knowledge, Nature, and the Good : Essays on Ancient Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.
• Cooper, John M. Reason and Emotion : Essays on Ancient Moral Psychology and Ethical Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
• Fine, John V. A. The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1983.
• Fornara, Charles W. The Nature of History in Ancient Greece and Rome. Eidos. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
• Fustel de, Coulanges. The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.
• Glotz, Gustave. The Greek City and Its Institutions. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1965.
• Guthrie, W. K. C. The Greek Philosophers from Thales to Aristotle. London: Methuen, 1967.
• Guthrie, W. K. C. A History of Greek Philosophy. 6 vols. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
• Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life : Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Malden: Blackwell, 1995.
• Hadot, Pierre. What Is Ancient Philosophy? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002.
• Hadot, Pierre. The Veil of Isis : An Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006.
• Havelock, Eric Alfred. The Greek Concept of Justice: From Its Shadow in Homer to Its Substance in Plato. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.
• Joint Association of Classical Teachers' Greek Course. The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture. 2nd ed. Robin Osborne, reviser, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984, 2008. This is an excellent place to start the study of classical Athens.
• Kurke, Leslie. Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
• Meier, Christian. Athens : A Portrait of the City in Its Golden Age. Robert & Rita Kimber, trans. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998.
• Nelson, Eric. The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought. Ideas in Context 69. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Richard, Carl J. The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.
• Rist, John M. Human Value : A Study in Ancient Philosophical Ethics. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982.
• Sorabji, Richard. Self : Ancient and Modern Insights About Individuality, Life, and Death. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
• Strauss, Leo. Liberalism Ancient and Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
• Strauss, Leo, and Joseph Cropsey. History of Political Philosophy. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Vernant, Jean Pierre. The Greeks. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
• Waterfield, Robin. Athens: A History, from Ancient Ideal to Modern City. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
• White, James Boyd. When Words Lose Their Meaning : Constitutions and Reconstitutions of Language, Character, and Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.