''The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization'' is a 1995 book by

Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is an American commentator, classicist, and military historian. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for ''The New York Times'', ''Wall Street Journal'', ...

, in which the author describes the underlying agriculturally centered laws, warfare, and family life of the Greek Archaic or ''

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

'' period.Hanson VD (1999) ''The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization''. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 596 p. Hanson's central argument is that the Greeks who farmed the countrysides of the Greek Archaic period ("the Other Greeks") are responsible for the rise of representative governments, promotion of the middle class, amateur militias composed of citizens, and other values of

Western Culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

, not the widely written about Greek intelligentsia. Hanson aims to connect the rises and falls of varying governments to the degree to which homesteading is a widespread practice among the populace.

Summary

Hanson argues that the Archaic Greek

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

or ''polis'' was an institution that grew out of the intensive farming of Greek countryside at the end of Greek Dark Ages. During Archaic Greece, the Greek yeomen had roughly the same amount of land, the same interests, and the same purchasing power. It is this group of free farmers who work their own land in mass that create the constitutional governments of the ''poleis'' (city-states). These ''poleis'' then primarily functioned to foster the practice of intensive farming by the voting class. At the end of the Archaic period and the beginning of

Classical times Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

, the veneration of individuality and equality had destroyed the very system of government it created. The book is divided into three sections: 1 - The Rise of The Small Farmer in Ancient Greece, 2 - The Preservation of Agrarianism, and 3 - To Lose a Culture.

Part One

Part one discusses post-

Mycenean Greece Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainlan ...

(1100 BC). Hanson argues that after the fall of Mycenean Greece, that Greece was decentralized, and people in an effort to feed themselves, turned to homesteading. Documents from the time show that the size of the Greek

yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...

farm was roughly equal. This rough equality in farm size translated to a rough equality in material wealth and created a citizenry neither poor nor wealthy but situated in the middle of their society. Additionally, the daily struggle of the small farmer against nature created a shared sense of comradery among the yeomen due to the similarity of their experiences.

Part Two

Part two of the book discusses the development of the ''polis''. Hanson suggests that the common culture of farming shared by the "Other Greeks" led them to create a government that protected their interests. In the Greek ''polis'', landed yeomen were typically the only citizens who could vote. As such, these "middling farmers" determined the laws of the ''polis'' in times of peace and decided when the ''polis'' would wage war. Hanson uses evidence of short warfare duration and the fact that wars typically occurred in the agricultural downtime of August to suggest that the hoplites were Greek yeomen farmers.

Part Three

Part three scrutinizes the decline of the egalitarian ''polis'' culture which occurred around 500 - 300 BC and is associated with Classical Greece. Hanson argues that an increase in wealth disparity drove the destruction of the egalitarian "polis" in Greece. Wealth disparity manifested itself in unequal plots of land and differential taxation. Marginal lands, i.e. many of the lands that Greek homesteads were located on, could not produce enough food to be viable in subsistence agricultural practice under the heavy taxes of the Classical period. This forced many yeomen off of their farms and potentially into serfdom. This precipitated the destruction of a form of government in which the voter also is a legislative representative, warrior, and farmer.

Publication history

The book was first published in 1995 by the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

. A second edition updated with a preface and a recent bibliography of the works of Victor Davis Hanson was published in 1999.

Reception and influence

''The Other Greeks'' has been called a masterpiece as well as a foundation for understanding the ''polis''.Rahe PA (1997) The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization. Review by Paul Rahe. ''The American Journal of Philology'', 118(3):459-462 While reviewers do discuss shortcomings such as failing to discuss the effect of slavery on ''polis'' culture, or an overstatement of the case that agrarianism was the only common thread in Archaic Greece, reviews are generally positive.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Other Greeks, The 1995 non-fiction books Agriculture in Greece Ancient Greece Books by Victor Davis Hanson English-language books University of California Press books