Abstract

For once the blurbs on the book jacket do not exaggerate. Josiah Ober is one of the most original, wide-ranging, and provocative thinkers we have on Athenian democracy and his book, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule really is a ‘groundbreaking contribution to classical Greek history, ancient Greek philosophy, and the history of political thought’ and does indeed offer ‘close and insightful’ readings of particular texts . Every chapter is full of fresh interpretations of the most worked-over passages or a shift of focus which alters our reading of an entire text. Moreover, he has more interesting things to say about Ps.-Xenophon than just about anyone I have ever read. And he weaves all this into a richly textured story about modern as well as ancient democracy