Jan. 7th, 2023

jazzy_dave: (bookish)
M.I. Finley "The World Of Odysseus" (Penguin)






Ah, for the golden age of academic writing. Is it beautiful? No. But it is clear, concise, and argumentative. No 'pointing out a problem' stuff here; Finley just gives you the answers as he sees them. You'll be in no doubt as to what he thinks at any stage in your reading. For instance, "the historian of ideas and values has no more Satanic seducer to guard against than the man on the Clapham omnibus."
But this isn't popular history by any means, for good or bad. There are no catchy anecdotes, no sex, and murder stories. It's just a solid suggestion of what a world looked like, in this case, the 'Dark Ages' in the eastern Mediterranean, after the Mycenaeans and before the time the Homeric poems were coming together. Basically, not very attractive.

From Wikipedia, I discovered that -
"He taught at Columbia University and City College of New York, where he was influenced by members of the Frankfurt School who were working in exile in America. In 1952, during the Red Scare, Finley was fired from his teaching job at Rutgers University; in 1954, he was summoned by the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and asked whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party USA. He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer."

He was fired at the end of the year and could never work in the U.S. again. A political martyr who ended up becoming a British citizen and getting knighted, after hanging out with the Frankfurters in New York? That's my kind of man.

Profile

jazzy_dave: (Default)
jazzy_dave

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
1819 20 2122 2324
25 262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 29th, 2025 04:41 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios