Classical Greek agriculture II: Two more alternative views

Since I published a review essay in this journal on the recent study of Classical Greek agriculture, focusing on two very different and even opposing attempts at synthesis [Cartledge, 1993], two further major studies in the same general field have appeared, again with different perspectives and conclusions. What one of them [Hanson, 1995] rightly calls the ‘veritable renaissance in research concerning ancient Greek agriculture and society’ shows no signs of premature ageing. Many fundamental questions, of course, remain unresolved, and are perhaps doomed to be irresolvable, but these two weighty (in all senses) tomes do seem to me to advance our understanding measurably and in potentially fruitful directions.

A Greek Countryside, by Michael H. Jameson, Curtis N. Runnels and Tjeerd van Andel. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xviii + 654. £84.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8047 1608 0

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, by Victor Davis Hanson. New York: Free Press, 1995. $28.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 02 913751 9