Literacy and Power in the Ancient World.

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Slightly rubbed jacket, pencil annoation on endpaper, otherwise very good and clean. / Leicht beriebener Umschlag, Bleistiftanmerkung auf Vorsatzblatt, sonst sehr gut und sauber. - Contents: List of illustrations -- 1. Literacy and power in the ancient world, ALAN K. BOWMAN, Christ Church, Oxford and GREG WOOLF, Brasenose College, Oxford -- 2. The Persepolis Tablets: speech, seal and script, D. M. LEWIS, Christ Church, Oxford -- 3. Literacy and the city-state in archaic and classical Greece, ROSALIND THOMAS, Royal Holloway, University of London -- 4. Literacy and language in Egypt in the Late and Persian Periods, JOHN RAY, Selwyn College, Cambridge -- 5. Literacy and power in Ptolemaic Egypt, DOROTHY J. THOMPSON, Girton College, Cambridge -- 6. Power and the spread of writing in the West, GREG WOOLF -- 7. Texts, scribes and power in Roman Judaea, M. D. GOODMAN, Oriental Institute and Wolfson College, Oxford -- 8. The Roman imperial army: letters and literacy on the northern frontier, ALAN K. BOWMAN -- 9. Literacy and power in early Christianity, ROBIN LANE FOX, New College, Oxford -- 10. Greek and Syriac in Late Antique Syria, P. BROCK, Oriental Institute and Wolfson College, Oxford -- 11. Later Roman bureaucracy: going through the files, C. M. KELLY, Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Royal Holloway, University of London -- 12. Literacy and power in the migration period, PETER HEATHER, University College London -- 13. Texts as weapons: polemic in the Byzantine dark ages, AVERIL CAMERON, King�s College London. - This collection attempts to set the study of literacy in the ancient world in the wider context of the debates among anthropologists over the impact of writing on society. Was writing a revolutionary innovation, prompting or participating in social change, or a fundamentally repressive and disciplinary technology? The book consists of a series of studies ranging over the whole of the Mediterranean world and much of northern Europe during a period of more than a millennium (c. 600 BC -�AD 800). The areas examined include Pharaonic and Hellenistic Egypt, Persia and the Near East, Judaea, classical Greece, and the Roman and Byzantine empires. Each of the contributors investigates, in his or her particular area of expertise, the changing roles of writing in history, in particular the extent to which writing played an active role in historical change in antiquity. The book as a whole illustrates and explores the diversity of writing practices and their relations to the construction of power in ancient society, with an awareness of the competing claims of anthropological and historical disciplines. Ancient and medieval historians, anthropologists and anyone interested in the power of the written word will find this book essential reading. ISBN 9780521433693