Walter Scheidel
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1 ETHNICITY and JEWISH IDENTITY in JOSEPHUS by DAVID
ETHNICITY AND JEWISH IDENTITY IN JOSEPHUS By DAVID McCLISTER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 David McClister 2 To the memory of my father, Dorval L. McClister, who instilled in me a love of learning; to the memory of Dr. Phil Roberts, my esteemed colleague; and to my wife, Lisa, without whose support this dissertation, or much else that I do, would not have been possible. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gladly recognize my supervisory committee chair (Dr. Konstantinos Kapparis, Associate Professor in the Classics Department at the University of Florida). I also wish to thank the other supervisory commiteee members (Dr. Jennifer Rea, Dr. Gareth Schmeling, and Dr. Gwynn Kessler as a reader from the Religious Studies Department). It is an honor to have their contributions and to work under their guidance. I also wish to thank the library staff at the University of Florida and at Florida College (especially Ashley Barlar) who did their work so well and retrieved the research materials necessary for this project. I also wish to thank my family for their patient indulgence as I have robbed them of time to give attention to the work necessary to pursue my academic interests. BWGRKL [Greek] Postscript® Type 1 and TrueTypeT font Copyright © 1994-2006 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. These Biblical Greek and Hebrew fonts are used with permission and are from BibleWorks, software for Biblical -
Review Essay
PAULINA MATERA* University of Lodz Rafał MateRa** University of Lodz DOI: 10.26485/PS/2017/66.4/7 REVIEW ESSAY Walter Scheidel, The great leveler. Violence and the history of inequality from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century, Princeton-Oxford: Princeton University Press 2017, pp. 554. THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE BY WALTER SCHEIDEL Abstract This article constitutes a review of the book “The great leveler” written by Walter Scheidel. We refer to the issue of constructing theories and pointing out the regularities in history. We present the scientific background of the author, as well as his inspirations from other publications of a similar kind, notably “Capital in the twenty-first century” byt homas Piketty. We analyse the ele- ments of Scheidel’s thesis that the levelling of income inequalities within the framework of states may come about only from violent shocks: mobilization warfare, transformative revolution, state failure, and lethal pandemics. We comment on each of these factors, offering a critical approach to the author’s interpretation and directions for further research. We also argue that for the studies of income disparities the estimation of data about the middle class is * Dr hab., prof. Uł, Department of american and Media Studies, faculty of International and Political Studies; e-mail: [email protected] ** Dr hab., prof. Uł, Department of History of economic thought and economic History, Faculty of Economics and Sociology; e-mail: [email protected] 126 PaUlIna MateRa, Rafał MateRa crucial, as the lack of or small scope of it is the most dangerous for domes- tic stability. -
A Historiography of the Study of the Roman Economy: Economic Growth, Development, and Neoliberalism Author: Matthew S
Paper Information: Title: A Historiography of the Study of the Roman Economy: Economic Growth, Development, and Neoliberalism Author: Matthew S. Hobson Pages: 11–26 DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/TRAC2013_i_iii Publication Date: 04 April 2014 Volume Information: Platts, H., Pearce, J., Barron, C., Lundock, J., and Yoo, J. (eds) 2014. TRAC 2013: Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, King’s College, London 2013. Oxford: Oxbow Books. Copyright and Hardcopy Editions: The following paper was originally published in print format by Oxbow Books for TRAC. Hard copy editions of this volume may still be available, and can be purchased direct from Oxbow at http://www.oxbowbooks.com. TRAC has now made this paper available as Open Access through an agreement with the publisher. Copyright remains with TRAC and the individual author(s), and all use or quotation of this paper and/or its contents must be acknowledged. This paper was released in digital Open Access format in July 2017 A Historiography of the Study of the Roman Economy: Economic Growth, Development, and Neoliberalism Matthew S. Hobson Introduction This paper attempts a historiography of the study of the Roman economy over the last forty years. It is argued that a new paradigm, used in the sense of a broad set of values, assumptions and concepts shared by those within the field, began to emerge during the 1980s, reaching its most concrete form in the middle of the last decade with the publication of the Cambridge Economic History of the Graeco-Roman World (Scheidel et al. 2007a). The new paradigm manifests itself most clearly in the adoption of the ideological outlook of development economics, a body of economic theory which first came into being in the immediate post-war period with the ostensible motive of removing poverty from the ‘underdeveloped’ parts of the globe (Escobar 1995: 3–12, 21–54). -
Contents More Information
Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67307-6 - The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World Edited by Walter Scheidel, Ian Morris and Richard Saller Table of Contents More information CONTENTS List of maps page viii List of figures ix List of tables xi Acknowledgments xii List of abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 ian morris (Stanford University), richard p. saller (Stanford University), and walter scheidel (Stanford University) PART I: DETERMINANTS OF ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE 2 Ecology 15 robert sallares (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) 3 Demography 38 walter scheidel (Stanford University) 4 Household and gender 87 richard p. saller (Stanford University) 5 Law and economic institutions 113 bruce w. frier (University of Michigan) and dennis p. kehoe (Tulane University) 6 Technology 144 helmuth schneider (University of Kassel) v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-67307-6 - The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World Edited by Walter Scheidel, Ian Morris and Richard Saller Table of Contents More information vi contents PART II: EARLY MEDITERRANEAN ECONOMIES AND THE NEAR EAST 7 The Aegean Bronze Age 175 john bennet (University of Sheffield) 8 Early Iron Age Greece 211 ian morris (Stanford University) 9 The Iron Age in the western Mediterranean 242 michael dietler (University of Chicago) 10 Archaic Greece 277 robin osborne (Cambridge University) 11 The Persian Near East 302 peter r. bedford (Union College) PART III: CLASSICAL GREECE 12 Classical Greece: Production 333 john k. davies (University of Liverpool) 13 Classical Greece: Distribution 362 astrid moller¨ (University of Freiburg) 14 Classical Greece: Consumption 385 sitta von reden (University of Freiburg) PART IV: THE HELLENISTIC STATES 15 The Hellenistic Near East 409 robartus j. -
A New Era in the Study of Global History Is Born but It Needs to Be Nurtured
[JCH 5.1-2 (2018–19)] JCH (print) ISSN 2051-9672 https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.39422 JCH (online) ISSN 2051-9680 A New Era in the Study of Global History is Born but It Needs to be Nurtured Harvey Whitehouse1 University of Oxford, UK Email: [email protected] (corresponding author) Peter Turchin2 University of Connecticut Email: [email protected] (corresponding author) Pieter François3, Patrick E. Savage4, Thomas E. Currie5, Kevin C. Feeney6, Enrico Cioni7, Rosalind Purcell8, Robert M. Ross9, Jennifer Larson10, John Baines11, Barend ter Haar12, R. Alan Covey13 Abstract: Thisa rticle is a response to Slingerland e t al. who criticize the quality of the data from Seshat: Global History Databank utilized in our Nature paper entitled “Complex Societies Precede Moralizing Gods throughout World History”. Their cri- tique centres around the roles played by research assistants and experts in procuring and curating data, periodization structure, and so-called “data pasting” and “data fill- ing”. We show that these criticisms are based on misunderstandings or misrepresenta- tions of the methods used by Seshat researchers. Overall, Slingerland et al.’s critique (which is crosslinked online here) does not call into question any of our main findings, but it does highlight various shortcomings of Slingerland et al.’s database project. Our collective efforts to code and quantify features of global history hold out the promise of a new era in the study of global history but only if critique can be conducted con- structively in good faith and both the benefitsa nd the pitfalls of open science fully recognized. -
Barbarians at the Gate: Herodotus, Bisotun, and a Persian Punishment in Egypt
Barbarians at the Gate: Herodotus, Bisotun, and a Persian Punishment in Egypt Keating P. J. McKeon American Journal of Philology, Volume 141, Number 3 (Whole Number 563), Fall 2020, pp. 349-380 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2020.0020 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/763624 [ Access provided at 27 Jan 2021 06:13 GMT from Harvard Library ] BARBARIANS AT THE GATE: HERODOTUS, BISOTUN, AND A PERSIAN PUNISHMENT IN EGYPT KEATING P. J. MCKEON u Abstract: This paper argues that Cambyses’ treatment of Psammenitus in Book 3 of Herodotus’ Histories constitutes the adaptation of a punishment recorded in the Old Persian text of the Bisotun inscription. By outlining a typology for the practice, the article demonstrates the primacy of a Persian source, and proposes a series of specific, programmatically significant alterations made by Herodotus in the constructi on of the punishment. The resulting episode represents a complex engagement with questions arising from the Persian invasion of Egypt both in the Histories and in the wider historical record concerning Cambyses’ legitimacy as Egyptian ruler. RECENT WOrk ON HERODOTUS has done much to elucidate his incorporation, and deliberate modification, of Near Eastern material.1 Rather than obvious processes of either direct insertion or uneasy Hel- lenization, the appearance of such material often reflects a sophisticated attempt to tailor raw sources to fit the wider context of the Histories and address the author’s recurrent concerns. The treatment of Psammenitus by Cambyses detailed in Book 3 has been studied more often for its lachrymose outcome than its punitive design.2 Closer examination reveals a particularly striking example of non-Greek practice subtly refashioned to accommodate a Greek narrative pattern. -
Roman Population Size: the Logic of the Debate
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics Roman population size: the logic of the debate Version 2.0 July 2007 Walter Scheidel Stanford University Abstract: This paper provides a critical assessment of the current state of the debate about the number of Roman citizens and the size of the population of Roman Italy. Rather than trying to make a case for a particular reading of the evidence, it aims to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of rival approaches and examine the validity of existing arguments and critiques. After a brief survey of the evidence and the principal positions of modern scholarship, it focuses on a number of salient issues such as urbanization, military service, labor markets, political stability, living standards, and carrying capacity, and considers the significance of field surveys and comparative demographic evidence. © Walter Scheidel. [email protected] 1 1. Roman population size: why it matters Our ignorance of ancient population numbers is one of the biggest obstacles to our understanding of Roman history. After generations of prolific scholarship, we still do not know how many people inhabited Roman Italy and the Mediterranean at any given point in time. When I say ‘we do not know’ I do not simply mean that we lack numbers that are both precise and safely known to be accurate: that would surely be an unreasonably high standard to apply to any pre-modern society. What I mean is that even the appropriate order of magnitude remains a matter of intense dispute. This uncertainty profoundly affects modern reconstructions of Roman history in two ways. First of all, our estimates of overall Italian population number are to a large extent a direct function of our views on the size of the Roman citizenry, and inevitably shape any broader guesses concerning the demography of the Roman empire as a whole. -
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics In search of Roman economic growth Version 1.0 June 2008 Walter Scheidel Stanford University Abstract: This paper seeks to relate proxy indices of economic performance to competing hypotheses of sustainable and unsustainable intensive economic growth in the Roman world. It considers the economic relevance of certain types of archaeological data, the potential of income-centered indices of economic performance, and the complex relationship between economic growth and incomes documented in the more recent past, and concludes with a conjectural argument in support of a Malthusian model of unsustainable economic growth triggered by integration. © Walter Scheidel. [email protected] Introduction In 2002, Richard Saller urged Roman historians to define their terms in discussing ‘economic growth’. He emphasized the necessity of distinguishing gross or extensive growth from per capita or intensive growth and argued that the observed upturn in economic indicators in the late republican and early monarchical periods may well be compatible with a fairly low annual rate of intensive growth of less than 0.1 percent. He also identified the need for explanations of the abatement of signs of economic expansion and the timing of this phenomenon.1 A new paper by Peter Temin meets this demand by introducing alternative models of the nature of growth that are susceptible to empirical testing. He invites us to choose between “a single spurt of productivity change whose effects were gradually eroded by Malthusian pressures” and the notion “that Roman productivity growth continued until some unrelated factors inhibited it”.2 Testable working hypotheses about the nature of Roman economic growth are essential but have so far been absent from the debate. -
The Ghosts of Monotheism: Heaven, Fortune, and Universalism in Early Chinese and Greco-Roman Historiography
The Ghosts of Monotheism: Heaven, Fortune, and Universalism in Early Chinese and Greco-Roman Historiography FILIPPO MARSILI Saint Louis University [email protected] Abstract: This essay analyzes the creation of the empires of Rome over the Medi- terranean and of the Han dynasty over the Central Plains between the third and the second centuries BCE. It focuses on the historiographical oeuvres of Polybius and Sima Qian, as the two men tried to make sense of the unification of the world as they knew it. The essay does away with the subsequent methodological and conceptual biases introduced by interpreters who approached the material from the vantage point of Abrahamic religions, according to which transcendent per- sonal entities could favor the foundation of unitary political and moral systems. By considering the impact of the different contexts and of the two authors’ sub- jective experiences, the essay tries to ascertain the extent to which Polybius and Sima Qian tended to associate unified rule with the triumph of universal values and the establishment of superior, divine justice. All profound changes in consciousness, by their very nature, bring with them characteristic amnesias. Out of such oblivions, in specific historical circumstances, spring narratives.—Benedict Anderson1 The nation as the subject of History is never able to completely bridge the aporia between the past and the present.—Prasenjit Duara2 Any structure is the ingenuous re-proposition of a hidden god; any systemic approach might actually constitute a crypto-theology.—Benedetto Croce3 Introduction: Monotheism, Systemic Unities, and Ethnocentrism Scholars who engage in comparisons are often wary of the ethnocentric biases that lurk behind their endeavors. -
Rome, China, and the First Great Divergence
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics From the ‘Great Convergence’ to the ‘First Great Divergence’: Roman and Qin-Han state formation and its aftermath Version 2.1 November 2007 Walter Scheidel Stanford University Abstract: This paper provides a synoptic outline of convergent trends in state formation in western and eastern Eurasia from the early first millennium BCE to the mid-first millennium CE and considers the problem of subsequent divergence. © Walter Scheidel. [email protected] Twin empires? Two thousand years ago, perhaps half of the entire human species had come under the control of just two powers, the Roman and Han empires at opposite ends of the Eurasia. Both entities were broadly similar in terms of size.1 Both of them were run by god-like emperors residing in the largest cities the world had seen so far; both states were made up of some 1,500 to 2,000 administrative districts and, at least at times, employed hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Both states laid claim to ruling the whole world, orbis terrarum and tianxia, while both encountered similar competition for surplus between central government and local elites, similar pressures generated by secondary state formation beyond their frontiers and subsequent ‘barbarian’ infiltration, and both of them even ended in similar ways: One half, the original political core – the west in Europe, the north in China –, was first weakened by warlordism and then taken over by ‘barbarian’ successor states, whereas the other half was maintained by a traditionalist regime. It was only from the late sixth century CE onward that the two trajectories of state formation began to diverge, slowly at first but more dramatically over time, between the cyclical restoration of a China-wide empire in the East and the decline of empire and central government in the West, followed by the slow creation of a polycentric state system that proved resistant to any attempts to impose hegemony, let alone unification, and ultimately evolved into the now-familiar cluster of modern nation states. -
Curriculum Vitae Walter Scheidel
1 Walter Scheidel Department of Classics, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305-2145, USA [email protected] tel. (650) 725-3800 fax (650) 725-3801 www.stanford.edu/~scheidel Academic employment 2008– Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University 2004– Professor of Classics and (since 2012) of History, Stanford University 2003–2004 Associate Professor of Classics, Stanford University 2002 Visiting Associate Professor of History, University of Chicago 2000–2002 Visiting Assistant Professor of History, University of Chicago 1999_2000 Acting Assistant Professor, Department of Classics and Social Science History Institute, Stanford University 1996_1999 Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow in Ancient History, Darwin College; Invited Lecturer, Faculty of Classics; Senior Member, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge 1990_1995 ‘Vertragsassistent’ and University Lecturer in Ancient History, Department of Ancient History, University of Vienna Secondary visiting positions, fellowships, and honors 2017_2018 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2017_2018 Visiting Scholar, Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University 2017 ‘Gastprofessor’ (Visiting Professor), Faculty of Law, University of Zürich 2016 Guest Professor, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen 2015_2016 Stanford Humanities and Arts Enhanced Sabbatical Fellowship, Stanford University 2015_ Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 2013_ Catherine R. Kennedy and Daniel L. Grossman Fellow in Human Biology, Stanford University -
The Great Leveler. Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone BOOK REVIEW Ageeconomic to the Alternatives, Twenty-First 2017, Centuryissue 3, Pp
The Great Leveler. Violence and the History of Inequality From the Stone BOOK REVIEW AgeEconomic to the Alternatives, Twenty-First 2017, CenturyIssue 3, pp. 486-488 The Great Leveler. Violence and the History of Inequality From the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century By Walter Scheidel Princeton University Prees. Princeton and Oxford. ISBN 978-0-691-16502-8. 2017, 504. Inequality has been Walter Scheidel's The Great Leveler. one of the most Violence and the History of Inequality from serious "problems" the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century1 is that engages the devoted namely to this issue. My first impression mind of so many is that the book has an unusual structure: an people in different introduction and seven parts which in turn are divided into sixteen chapters. It becomes fields of science. evident that this unusual, albeit appropriate Economists, structure, was determined by the author's sociologists, interesting approach. The text is not structured philosophers, by chronology. A problem-thematic approach journalists, political has been adopted instead. In addition, this study scientists and offers 54 tables and figures. politicians have been taken part in a heated The big question raised at the very beginning debate on the issue, whether out of scientific of the exposition is: "Has inequality always been motives or in the pursuit of personal, partisan with us?" In his attempt to provide an answer to or "public" interest. In such complex cases of this question, the author argues that inequality has always been there, though it has taken excessive multilateral interest, it is necessary various forms throughout the years such as that historians be given a chance to express improving hunting fields or increasing the female their opinion.