“From Democrats to Kings is a story not just of Athens at the height of its power and Alexander at his, but of the turbulent times of transition in between these two powerful extremes.”
Is the European Union better off as a united whole or individual nations? Would the US be better off if it had a stronger president, one that could break congressional deadlocks? Countries today are immersed in arguments over the benefits of centralized or decentralized power.
As Michael Scott dryly points out, however, the past is just like now, only earlier. In From Democrats to Kings, he covers a relatively understudied period of Greek history: the period of transition between what we often see at the height of Athenian democracy, the 500s, and when it was taken over by Philip and Alexander the Great, often seen as the end of their democracy.
The book is perhaps slightly easier to read if you already know about the periods immediately before and after its setting, but it’s fun either way. Over a single generation, Athens goes from a democracy to a dictatorship, and Greece goes from a collection of warring cities to a unified whole, one that would eventually be a part of the enormous land empire of Alexander the great. For that generation, Athens would be wracked with indecision between divisive democracy and dictatorial unity, even putting Socrates on trial for supporting dictatorships.
Today, we often see Alexander as the death of Greek democracy (partly due to Athenian propaganda), but Scott points out that Athens actually benefited enormously during his reign. Their GDP doubled, huge public investment was begun in religious sanctuaries, stadiums, theatres, and public works, statues stolen 150 years previous by the Persians were returned by Alexander, and Athens entered the longest period of prosperity it had enjoyed in a century. Unification, even under a dictator, was not all bad for Athens, nor for Greece, though it came at the cost of liberty.
The period is an interesting one, and the book is even more so. As well as a professor at Cambridge, Scott is a presenter of BBC documentaries, and that style comes through in the book with his eagerness to share tidbits of knowledge as well as explain his larger theme. I will guiltily admit I have a passion for classical history anyway, but even if you don’t the book is interesting, providing a clear understanding of events and carefully putting it into modern context. Though few democracies today are faced with a choice between democrats and kings, the optimal level of centralization remains an interesting, and contentious, issue.
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