Josiah Ober
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Josiah Ober is an American historian of ancient Greece and classical
political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...
. He is Tsakopoulos- Kounalakis Professor in honor of
Constantine Mitsotakis Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I *Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
, and professor of classics and political science, at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. His teaching and research links ancient Greek history and philosophy with modern political theory and practice.


Career

Ober was educated at the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
(B.A., major in history, 1975) and the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
(Ph.D., Department of History, 1980). He was a professor of ancient history at
Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...
(1980–1990), and then at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
(1990–2006). He has received fellowships from the
American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
(1989–90), the
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
(1997), and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Science (2004-5). He delivered the 2002-2003 Sigmund H. Danziger, Jr. Memorial Lecture in the Humanities at the University of Chicago and the 2019 Sather Lectures University of California, Berkeley. Ober was a student of Chester Starr, and has taught classicist John Ma, ancient Greek historian Emily Mackil, and the political theorist Ryan Balot.


Influence

Ober's ''Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens'' won the Goodwin Award in 1989. Some early work was criticized by
Mogens Herman Hansen Mogens Herman Hansen FBA (born 20 August 1940, Frederiksberg) is a Danish classical philologist and classical demographer who is one of the leading scholars in Athenian Democracy and the Polis. Academic career Hansen finished his masters at U ...
for overemphasizing the ideological aspect of
Athenian democracy Athenian democracy developed around the 6th century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Although Athens is the most famous ancient Greek democratic city- ...
against its institutional dimension, and P.J. Rhodes accused him of abandoning scholarly impartiality in favour of democratic advocacy. In a review of ''The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece'' for
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...
, Peter Rose concluded that Ober had produced “an eccentric, at times intriguing, but deeply flawed work of history, which ultimately tells us more about the ideology of the Stanford classics department than it does about ancient Greece”. Paul Cartledge called ''Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens'' “a seminal work”. Jennifer Roberts called ''Political Dissent in Democratic Athens'' “a major contribution to a dialogue of enormous import”. Melissa Lane wrote: "Ober draws on empirical evidence about the ancient world in the service of normative political theory, and in so doing sheds light not just on Athens but on the creation and operation of democratic institutions."
Danielle Allen Danielle Susan Allen (born November 3, 1971) is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She is also the Director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard in 2015, Allen ...
praised Ober's "Democracy and Knowledge' in ''The New Republic'' (2008). Mimis Chrysomalis's review of ''The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece'' CritCom states that in this “significant resource for scholars of classical antiquity, political science, and economic history” Ober “offers a novel perspective on how economic performance was connected to . . . democratic institutions.” Adriaan Lanni's review praised ''Rise and Fall'' as part of the “exciting (and controversial) recent developments” in the 'Stanford school of ancient history' and judged Ober's arguments an “unusually compelling compilation of methods, data and argument in support of a broad thesis.” Barton Swaim called ''Demopolis: Democracy Before Liberalism'' a “tightly reasoned work of scholarship” in his
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
review.


Books


Authored

* ''Fortress Attica: Defense of the Athenian Land Frontier, 404-322 B.C.'', Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985. * ''Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. * ''The Athenian Revolution: Essays on Ancient Greek Democracy and Political Theory'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. * ''Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. * ''Athenian Legacies: Essays on the Politics of Going on Together'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. * ''Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. * ''The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece,'' Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. * ''Demopolis: Democracy Before Liberalism,'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.


Co-authored

* with Manville, B., ''A Company of Citizens: What the World's First Democracy Teaches Leaders about Creating Great Organizations'', Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2003. * with Kurt A. Raaflaub, Robert Wallace, ''Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece'', Berkeley, University of California Press, 2007.


Edited

* with Eadie, J., ''The Craft of the Ancient Historian: Essays in Honor of Chester G. Starr'', University Press of America: Lanham, 1985. * with Euben, P., and Wallach, J., ''Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstruction of American Democracy'', Cornell University Press: Ithaca, 1994. * with Hedrick, C., ''Dēmokratia: A Conversation on Democracies, Ancient and Modern'', Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1996.


References


External links

*
"Democratic Lessons: What the Greeks Can Teach Us, (Part I) - A Conversation with Josh Ober"
''Ideas Roadshow'', 2015
"Learning from Athens"
2006
"Classicists Crunch Data to Test Hypotheses about Greece"
2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ober, Josiah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni University of Michigan alumni American educators American political philosophers Historians of antiquity 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers