Spartan Regime
Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy
An authoritative and refreshingly original consideration of the government and culture of ancient Sparta and her place in Greek history. For centuries, ancient Sparta has been glorified in song, fiction, and popular art. Yet the true nature of a civilization described as a combination of democracy and oligarchy by Aristotle, considered an ideal of liberty in the ages of Machiavelli and Rousseau, and viewed as a forerunner of the modern totalitarian state by many twentieth-century scholars has long remained a mystery. In a bold new approach to historical study, noted historian Paul Rahe attempts to unravel the Spartan riddle by deploying the regime-oriented political science of the ancient Greeks, pioneered by Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Polybius, in order to provide a more coherent picture of government, art, culture, and daily life in Lacedaemon than has previously appeared in print, and to explore the grand strategy the Spartans devised before the arrival of the Persians in the Aegean.
About the Author
Paul A. Rahe is professor of history and political science at Hillsdale College, and author of "Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution", and "Against Throne and Altar: Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic".
Reviews
"Paul Rahe continues his monumental history of ancient Sparta, by explaining why and how Sparta's early strategic role in the Greek world was inseparable from the uniqueness of its origins and values. An insightful and sympathetic view of Sparta, one that could only be written by a masterful historian and classicist with Rahe's singular knowledge of political philosophy, ancient and modern" – Victor Davis Hanson, The Hoover Institution, author of "The Other Greeks"
"Paul Rahe toils boldly at the intersection of political and diplomatic history, military history, and political theory. He has always been one of a kind, and this highly original book will cement his reputation as such. Who else has treated Spartan policy with the seriousness that he shows that it deserves? Nobody" – Clifford Orwin, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto, and Senior Fellow, Berlin Thucydides Center
"Rahe thinks and writes big... 'The Spartan Regime' breaks important new ground" – Jacob Howland, Commentary
