PERICLEAN ATHENS Very Good in Good dust jacket

Light foxing to textblock. DJ has tears and a couple of small pieces missing. ; The history of Athens in the fifth century is looked at to get an overall view of the essential elements that made up the Athenian triumphs of those years. The study centres on Athens in the time of Pericles and for a few years before and after him. The astonishing performance of these years calls for a wide survey - this shows the background against which the political events took place, especially the rise and development of the Athenian empire, the ideals for which it stood, the faults which it developed and the fierce opposition which it aroused. Pericles is the central figure and he gave the finest formulations of Athenian power, but he had opponents of whom something is known, and who were quite unscrupulous in their attacks. The failure of the Athenian empire, after its prodigious start, calls for examination. Some conventional ideas on the subject are certainly wrong and Pericles' successors were not as bad as has been maintained. The real hero of the story, however, is the Athenian people, who by founding the first real democracy and fighting to the end for it, showed how much it meant to them and what strength it gave to them. ; 310 pages