G:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell 28,1048RED.wpdG:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell September 27, 2008 (1:09 pm) inspired thenewlyemergingleftist ’70s his words and deeds weresweptaway well meaningandfutileastheorganizat liberalism past,whosepassionateadvocacy his critical editions of Euripides, his views of Hellenism, his post-World War 1 War post-Worldhis hisHellenism, criticaleditionsof ofEuripides, his views ac Murray’s articles oneveryaspectof other scholarlyreviewsof the accomplish died in1957Murraywasregardeda nection ratherdi bythefollo over lenism hasbeentaken as thepublicintellectual who role His he might neverhavewritten,sofarasmo by Fowler (quotedinthisvolume):“insp is stillunsurpassedasanin University Libraryhe commissioned Russell’s Russell, bothofwhomremained his friend his companionswereGeorgeBernardShawandBertrand members. Among Nations Union,anorganizationthat of League supportofthewarandwholaterbecameco-chairman in during large asaliberalactivistwho, Finally hewasrespectedbytheworldat culture. Greek classical in alism rooted also esteemedbyawiderreadingpublic positioninclassicalscholarship tigious community of scholars asRegiusProfessorofGreekatOxford, the mostpres- in even American lecturecircuitsand 76 F $156 (hb). tional Politics Stray,ed. Christopher At Today he is forgotten. Youngerclassica forgotten. is he Today leading or muchofthe Reviews W rst perusal REAPPRAISING GILBERTMURRAY us W . Oxford: Oxford U. P., 2007. Pp. xii, 400.£65; £27.50Pp. . Oxford: (pb).Cdn.2007. Oxford U.P., $55 (pb). gure inBritishacademia,Brit T erently than Murraydid.Asforhisliberalactivism, whenhe Gilbert Murray Reassessed Murray Gilbert W isbn Gilbert Murray Reassessed: Hellenism, Theatre, and Interna- and Theatre, Hellenism, Reassessed: Murray Gilbert rst half of the twentieth centuryGilbertMurraywasa rst halfofthetwentieth Religious Studies/McMasterU. Hamilton, 978-0-19-920879-1(hb). greenspn troduction tothissubject. Louis Greenspan on revolutionaries andneo-conservatives. World War1,wrotewell-arguedpamphlets T @ ectionately asanobleghostofVictorian , Canada , Canada tivities: histranslationsofGreekdrama, mcmaster.ca British politics.Hewasadmiredbythe connected modern liberalism with Hel- with connected modernliberalism in the’20sand’30sattracted400,000 ion hehadchampioned.In the ’60sand wers ofLeoStrausswhoviewthiscon- in theEnglish-speakingworld.Hewas st scholars areconcernedtoday” scholars (p. st 58). as thechampion of a magisterialliber- ite of his greatfamewhen hewasalive, of ite ments of aparticularwriter.Thereare l scholars would endorse the statement l scholarswouldendorsethe in the tides of anti-liberal fervourthat in thetidesof oftheLeagueNationswasseenas s for life. AschiefeditoroftheHome

z has the format of festschriftshas and the format The ProblemsofPhilosophy l8s 4k1 ish theatre, on the British and ish theatre,ontheBritish z , which G:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell 28,1048RED.wpdG:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell September 27, 2008 (1:09 pm) during asummerwalkin1914.Murrayopenedtheconversationbysco their anecdoteaboutanencounter em with reasonattheexpenseof more, theproponentofaliberalismthat for ourtime.TheystillportrayMurrayas one who inhabited a world that isno a Mark Gri essay “GilbertMurrayonGreekLiterature:theGreat/GreekMan’sBurden”by how Americanscoulddancetothisnoise. heard a Beethoven quartet on the radio thathecouldn’tunderstand he remarked Murray’s relevance forourtime.AsaclassicalscholarhimselfGri relevance Murray’s ray’s re Ann Pauladan theotherFrancisWest’saccountof and AlexanderMurray, Mur- reason, Murray’so and horri speechless by assuringhimthatwarwascertain,thuscausingthe it closed powers. Grey ofimpendingwarinEurope,forhimimpossiblebetweencivilized rumours London terroristattack ofJuly2005. threaten us today.Inthisspiritthevo interdisciplinary andrelevanttohisowntime.Gri ciously drewonthesocialsciences,thus closet ofacademicclassicalscholarshi the of out literature classical the contributionthatMurraymadeinbringing to been surpassed. Buthe insiststhatlong these shortcomings should notblind us his colleaguesthatwith Murray’stranslat to entitled deserves anewhearing.Thebookcouldhavebeen that a voiceofliberalism to scholarship.Theaimof the volume is contributions Murray’s of up summing But thisvolumeismorethana topics. internationalism andevenhislecturesonthe oiia re. (P.59) political order. approp cultured public,wereextraordinarily general a to hepresentedtheseideas which in themanner and Nietzsche), Friedrich others (mostnotably,Jane Ha in theirmainoutlines,thewayswhich no [W]hile Murray’sideasabouttheGreekswere known as the ritualtheoryofGreek the as known T ectionate and charming, seemlessinte The work ofaddressing Murray’scont work The The volumeopenswithtwosets of me W The “boldideas”thatGri nd aliberalismthat addresses the anti X ections onanAustralianchildhood Gilbert MurrayRetrie U th. Gri T U W spring reveal that he wassotonedeaf tomusicthat when he ed Murraytorushhome.As th’s article is the most ambitious ofthosethatarguefor th’s articleisthemostambitious rrison, and James Frazer; and, less directly and consciously, and lessdirectly and, Frazer; James and rrison, U ved forOurTimes th is referring to as Murray’s havecometobe as th isreferringto lume is dedicated to those who diedinthe to those dedicated is lume between Murray and Sir Edward Grey, Sir between Murrayand he adoptedandadaptedthe bold new ideas of otions. Murray’soptimismisevidentin p. He praises Murray as onewhoauda- as p. HepraisesMurray drama, atheorywhichheldthatGreek toreviveMurraythepublicintellectual, making the studyof Greek authors making was naively optimistic andtopheavy wasnaively rested inrefashioningGilbertMurray moirs, onebyMurray’sgrandchildren ions andcriticalanalysesoftextshave riate toaparticularmentality andsocio- emporary standingbeginswiththe -liberal, anti-intellectualforcesthat . Thememoirsofhisgrandchildren, t particularlyoriginalanddistinctive t bbc z : a contributiontothestruggle : for thesupremacyofbloodless U , allbyspecialists in these th writes: Reviews U th agrees U ng at 77 G:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell 28,1048RED.wpdG:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell September 27, 2008 (1:09 pm) not enterreligionfromtheoutside such asRenéeGirard,whoargueth today Gri them. Inrevisingtheviewof elevating into the demonicforcesof Greek civili best, that is,asexempli best, superstition andtheirrationalfromon ism was notsimplyanassertionofab Mu so thedoing bestGreekauthors. In and theunderworld,tensions that contin ritualdr drama wasrootedinreligious 78 classical literature. While he agrees with Gri classical literature.Whileheagreeswith democracy. that rejectliberalism, Murray represents for in an agewhenwefaceasurgeofreligiousand other democratic movements may bemore that Murray’sshortcomings alism isseriously Don Quixote and transformingthem. best servedbyanapproachthat is in religious fanaticisms,anti-rational philos in co Presumably heisproposingthat approaches thatweremostthreateningto theory succeeded brilliantly…inneutralizing ormodifying manyof those critical oftheEnglishupper-cl liberal-humanism Jakobson,andDurkheim)weremo Saussure, thepsychological-linguistic and Socialism) Marxismand … atamomentwhensocioeconomic-politicalmovements(e.g.of confront theirrationalbecause of academicinterpretation example, his though rootedinideology,canbeunde War andbeyond.HedemonstratesthatMurray’smatureliberalism, World the developmentofMurray’slibera traces tw the of cope withtheemergingforces International Politics”concludesthatMu than arelicofsocialorderthatdiedin1914,hisessay“GilbertMurrayand Gri Martin Ceadel comestoMurray Martin Ceadel as anhi The authorsareunitedinrescuing Murra U Reviews th bringshimintotheorbitofNietzscheandthosein U th arguesfurtherthatMurray’sachievement was not merely a triumph W W rm teetotalism was a response tohis strugglewithresponse his father’sa rm teetotalismwas ghting the battles of yesteryear, butmanyarguethathisliber- ghting thebattlesofyesteryear, X awed as a guidetoourperplexi as awed W ed in authors such asAeschylus and Euripides, entered but opensthedoorto but arepartoftheirinnerreality. spired by Murray’s programme of engaging of spired byMurray’sprogramme thehumanisticenterpriseingeneral.… Murray asalifeless,Olympianrationalist, zation sympathetically,transformingand ass establishment…,Murray’s“simplistic” amas ofthetensionsbetweenworld entieth century.Ceadel’sessay carefully nfronting theirrationalinformof anthropological theories(ofe.g.Freud,De high. Rather,Greekrationalismatits rray demonstrated thatGreekrational- rray ophies and aesthetic cults today, we are we today, cults andaesthetic ophies rstood asresponsestoexperience.For a liberalismthatwaspreparedtoreject stract rationalismthatsimplyrejected ued topenetratethemoraluniverseof lism from childhood through the First the lism fromchildhoodthrough at irrationalanddestructiveforcesdo instructive forusthanhisprinciples, rray’s liberalism was still notableto still was rray’s liberalism unting majorchallengestothesecular storian ofliberalismratherthan y fromthecaricatureofaVictorian U th thatMurraywasmuchmore ties. Indeedtheysuggesttome praxis , toaliberalismthatcan X uenced byhim (P. 74) G:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell 28,1048RED.wpdG:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell September 27, 2008 (1:09 pm) the Murray–Russell correspondence,traces the a ratherclearfocus.WilliamBrun into his correspondence with Russellwillappear life-long relationshiptoBertrandRussell. known to nodoubtwell heis cated readers, paci a centrist.Ifatthebeginning of the not war.Heevenco-optedChurchillfo sober policy of collective securityrather same pragmatismthathepromotedwar.ForMurraytheLeaguestoodfora oftheLeagueNationsUn chairman aleading role take in promoting to civili Hellenic failure, heargued,undid to establishaninternationalorder hadin which save Russellfromexcessively punitive pris tervening tosaveseveralfrompossibleexecution,andatanotherintervening adefenderofpaci hebecame to, rise hadgiven the war that nationalism ofjingoistic thedangers tosee hecame As developed further. perspectivesofbalancepowe the in withH. associated is all warsthat of Churchill,neverjoiningth mongering self between theradicalismandpaci self adays callacentristliberalhawk. At the beginning of that warhesituatedhim- after theFirstWorldWarwasfarfromqu destructive alcoholism.Murray’smatureli (p. same” the do energetic engagementwithinternationalpolitics,didnotquite forvirtuallyallhis ad which liberalism, post-World War post-World War oftheVictor go beyondtheliberalism that, in reverting toaliberalism that civilization willbecomeoflessand … ‘Western’ whole that notmerelytheBritishEmpirebut danger “real a was the gained independenceandbecame nies West; itwaswhat wecalltoday Eurocentri andAfrican Asian alliances. third-world aristocratic liberalism tookprecedenceov ring betweenpaci lieved inpowerwithoutliberalism. x Althougho thegone memoryofMurraymayhave But Ceadel suggests thatBut Ceadel bythe suggests end ofWorld War 237). W sm and Lloyd George’s ji andLloydGeorge’s sm X amed the furyofnationalism,migh amed W ii sts, pro-Germans,andultra-realists like E. . WhileMurrayremainedattentivetoevents,“sadly,his ngoism, beforeWorldWar y G. Wells.Hisviewwaspracticalandrooted escheweddemocracy,Murray’sattemptto W W restrain the competing nationalisms. This the competingnationalisms. restrain rst warhemanoeuvredbetweenRussell’s sm ofHobsonandRussellthewar- the LeagueofNationsandbecameco- eau, editoroftheforthcomingvolume less account”(p.237).Ceadelconcludes r itsexecutive.Throughoutheremained zation. Thus, Ceadel shows, he was able thantheutopianpolicyofmakinglove ian erawasnotuptothechallengeof His Hellenism, itseems,focused onthe r. Inthecourseofwarhisviews ult lifehadguidedhisintelligentand ion, promotingworldpeacewiththe er realism.Murrayfearedthe rise of the e messianic trumpeting of a war to end e messianictrumpetingofawarto on conditions).Theexperienceofwar, beralism which took shape duringand (Wearetoldthat majority intheUnitedNations,there c. He warned that astheformercolo- ixotic. He settledintowhatwenow- ixotic. readers of thisjournalbecausehis their relationship throughitsvarious .) ThisrelationshipbringsMurray t, he feared, lead to the failure the to t, hefeared,lead T theradarof most edu- W ii sts (atonepointin- theideologyofan ii soon aneditionof he was manoeuv- hewas y H. Carrwhobe- Reviews 79 G:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell 28,1048RED.wpdG:\WPData\TYPE2801\russell September 27, 2008 (1:09 pm) world mayuniteagainsttheWest”(p.216). isarealdangerthattheMoslem there gions arelikelytobere-barbarisedand aims atthewelfareofone(admittedlyverylarge)class”,adding“manygreatreli- liberalism whichaimedatenlightenment than youarewiththeexcessesofdemocr ments. Murray,however became disillusioned tohimbyguildsocialism,an gested schemes that weresug- his politicalwritingtoschemes toperfectdemocracy, wa to democracy.Russell,too, tionship admired each other’s achievements intheirrespective be said. iness for speculative is the Nations. Oneofthestrikingdi tions onWorldWar1andRussellrema liberalism washis and Murray’s paci and radicalism bond. Russellcertainlyoftenstrayedinto ofthealmighty dangers stinct andthe philosophically” agreed second, that“they [they] would appeal broadly to general readersandscholarsalike”(p.203), indivi agnostics, asrespectersof life-long the and schools Mill.Th ofVoltaire this meant they were boundbytwofund Stuart Millandotherfoundinggiants was aspublicintellectualswhocontinue an authorof as aliteraryHellenist, achievements Politics”. In theearlyyearsoftheir phases in“GilbertMurray,Bertrand 80 More might havebeensaidaswellaboutthecrucial di Their di Reviews W rst to do so, is Murray’s more cautiousempiricismversusRussell’sread- Murray’s is rst todo so, T erences, however, were striking. striking. erences, however,were Principia Mathematica X ights, a very welcome insight about which much more can ights, averywelcomeinsightaboutwhichmuchmore T erences Bruneauhighlights,andsofaras I know ritornello relationship Murraywaswellknownforhis while Russellwasrather lesswellknownas is meant,accordingtoBruneau, . Bruneau maintainsthat,thoughthey . Bruneau archism andvariouseducationalexperi- Russell, and theTheoryandPracticeof and Russell, and philosophy.Accordingto Bruneau, state. Bothpubliclyacknowledgedthis s anaristocrat,buthedevotedmuchof dual rights,andaswritersofprose,that amentals. Bothwereliberalsformedin d to championtheliberalism ofJohn to d and justicetoaLabourmovementthat . acy”; “I do regret the changedo “I acy”; froma ined sceptical ab ined sceptical about therelationofpolitics and in- : “Iamagooddealmoredisgusted They opposed each other’s posi- W elds, theirdeepestbond T erence intheir rela- out theout League of W sm, but Victorian W rst, “As