Christian Meier Books

In this outstanding new book, Christian Meier examines the close relationship between drama and politics at the beginning of the great age of Greek tragedy, focusing on the works of Aeschylus. The author examines the political, social and even psychological problems of the inhabitants of fifth-century Athens, during a time of rapid change. Through the role of festivals and the role of the festival of Dionysus in particular, Meier moves on to the interpretation of Aeschylus' plays. He shows how the political statements of the mythical characters made sense of and even influenced the politics of the day. Finally, he discusses the work of Sophocles in counterpoint to the plays of Aeschylus. This book will be of interest to students and academics of history, particularly the history of the ancient world, as well as those studying literature and drama.

A lively and accessible history of Athens's rise to greatness, from one of the foremost classical historians. The definitive account of Athens in the age of Pericles, Christian Meier's gripping study begins with the Greek triumph over Persia at the Battle of Salamis, one of the most significant military victories in history. Meier shows how that victory decisively established Athens's military dominance in the Mediterranean and made possible its rise to preeminence in almost every field of human eavor--commerce, science, philosophy, art, architecture, and literature. Within seventy-five years, Athens had become the most original and innovative civilization the ancient world ever produced. With elegant narrative style, Meier traces the birth of democracy and the flourishing of Greek culture in the fifth century B.C., as well as Athens' slow decline and defeat in the Peloponnesian War. The great figures--from politicians and generals like Themistocles and Alcibiades to the philosophers Socrates and Plato--emerge as flesh-and-blood human beings, firmly rooted in their times and places. This is history in the tradition of Simon Schama and Barbara Tuchman--learned, accessible, and beautifully written.

Why the Greeks? How did it happen that these people--out of all Mediterranean societies--developed democratic systems of government? The outstanding German historian of the ancient world, Christian Meier, reconstructs the process of political thinking in Greek culture that led to democracy. He demonstrates that the civic identity of the Athenians was a direct precondition for the practical reality of this form of government. Meier shows how the structure of Greek communal life gave individuals a civic role and discusses a crucial reform that institutionalized the idea of equality before the law. In Greek drama--specifically Aeschylus' Oresteia--he finds reflections of the ascendancy of civil law and of a politicizing of life in the city-state. He examines the role of the leader as well as citizen participation in Athenian democracy and describes an ancient equivalent of the idea of social progress. He also contrasts the fifth-century Greek political world with today's world, drawing revealing comparisons. The Greek Discovery of Politics is important reading for ancient historians, classicists, political scientists, and anyone interested in the history of political thought or in the culture of ancient Greece.

As politician and diplomat, writer and lover, but above all as a military genius, Julius Caesar is one of the perennially fascinating figures in history—Boswell called him ”the greatest man of any age.” Christian Meier's authoritative and accessible biography is the definitive modern account of Caesar's life and career, setting Caesar's life story against the rich political and social background of the Late Roman Republic.

In his now classic 'Caesar: A Biography', internationally renowned historian Christian Meier brings the most famous Roman of them all unforgettable to life. History leaps off the page as Meier tells the riveting story of a brilliant, complex man and the political and social forces that both shaped and challenged him. Filled with psychological insight and wonderful character analyses, 'Caesar: A Biography', reconstructs the rich political and social background of the Late Roman Republic. It demonstrates how limitations were deliberately imposed on the development of talent and personality in young Romans. Within this context, Meier reveals how Caesar established himself early on as a man whose unique drive and self-confidence would bring him into continual conflict with established institutions that were obsessed with the denial of the individual. From Caesar's birth to the inevitable Ides of March, Meier paints a full and vivid picture of how this larger-than-life leader truly affected the fate of the Roman republic and the course of history. Authoritative and accessible, this masterful biography has long been acknowledged as the definitive modern account of Caesar's life, career, and legacy. -- BOOK JACKET (inside flap text)

"Meier sees an "absence" of history in contemporary Europe and throughout the West - an absence he attributes to the way modern historians have written about history and, more important, to the dramatic transformations of the twentieth century. He argues for the central legacy of Western civilization. He tackles the difficulty of reconciling a historical perspective with our era of extreme acceleration, when experience is shaped less by inheritance and legacy than by the novelty of changes wrought by science and globalization. Finally, Meier contemplates the enormity of the Holocaust, which he sees as a test of "understanding" history. If it is part of the whole arc of the Western legacy, how do we fit it with the rest?"

Dieses Buch ist eine Festschrift anläßlich des 70. Geburtstages von Hans-Hermann Höhmann, der seit Jahren in der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa an der Universität Bremen tätig ist und deren Arbeit dort geprägt hat. Das Buch befaßt sich im wesentlichen mit osteuropäischer Wirtschaftstransformation, mit der Rolle des 'weichen' Faktoren, dem Thema 'Osteuropa und der Westen', der Entwicklung der russischen Wirtschaft und der Wirtschaft und Politik in Rußland. Diverse Autoren befassen sich in einzelnen Kapiteln mit diesen Themen.

Die Geschichte einer Krise, in den Biographien dreier Männer erzählt. Es spiegelt sich darin eine moderne Problematik in römischem Gewande, das Problem eines Übergangs, in dem die überkommenen Erwartungen scheitern, in dem es aufhört, paradox zu sein, daß lauter Paradoxes geschieht, in dem es erst nach langer Zermürbung der gesellschaftlichen Identität gelingt, wieder Macht über die Verhältnisse zu gewinnen.

Struktur und Krise der späten römischen Republik gehören zu den eigenartigsten und, wenn man das so steigern darf, paradoxesten der Weltgeschichte. Res publica amissa – das war eine Republik, deren Verlust befürchtet wurde, aber nicht für wahr gehalten werden konnte. Eine Gesellschaft zerstört ihre Ordnung, obwohl, ja: indem sie sie zu erhalten sucht. Eine virulente Krise spielt sich ab, in der sich hundert Jahre lang keine Alternative zum Herkommen bildet; in der alle potentiell Mächtigen mit dem System zufrieden und die Unzufriedenen über einzelne Situationen hinaus machtlos sind; in der die Reformen sich zumeist so schädlich auswirken wie die Mißstände, in der Effizienz und verfassungsgemäßes Handeln verschiedentlich zu Gegensätzen geraten. Erst nach nahezu zwei Jahrzehnten neuerlichen zermürbenden Bürgerkriegs konnte Augustus eine neue, eine monarchische Ordnung einrichten – und zwar indem er die Republik wiederherzustellen vorgab. Fünfzig Jahre nach der Erstveröffentlichung erscheint die mittlerweile zum Klassiker avancierte Studie von Christian Meier über den Untergang der Römischen Republik in einer vierten Auflage wieder im Franz Steiner Verlag.