"This excellent book presents a wealth of new evidence on the economic performance of ancient Greece, and how that performance was linked to democratic institutions. The data that Ober presents are truly extraordinary. Moreover, the main story is well presented, well argued, and thoroughly enjoyable to read."—Robert Fleck, Clemson University
"An astonishing work. If you want to know what the fuss is about the ancient Greeks, this is the book to start with."—John Ma, University of Oxford
"Remarkable. . . . [The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece] deserves a very broad readership in political science across subfields. It brings Greek antiquity into the 21st century."—S. Sara Monoson, Perspectives on Politics
"This is a groundbreaking book on the ancient world. Displaying the narrative skill of a master historian, The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece is must reading."—Barry Strauss, author of The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Greatest Assassination
"In this exemplary book, Josiah Ober, one of the foremost international authorities on ancient Greek political, economic, and intellectual history, persuasively explains why and how ancient Greek communities and individuals managed—and sometimes failed—to flourish culturally and materially."—Paul Cartledge, author of The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece
"Important and provocative."---Thomas M. Banchich, European Legacy
"A fresh and vigorous account about the roots of democracy."---Brian A. Pavlac, Canadian Journal of History
"[Ober's] work will be of interest to anyone who is serious about the history of political economy, or who wants to know more about the relationship between democracy, economic growth, and human flourishing, whether in the ancient or modern world. . . . The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece . . . will richly reward a serious lay reader. One of its most appealing qualities is its multidisciplinary approach, which is the fruit of Ober's extensive and generously acknowledged collaboration with scholars from around the world as well as with his Stanford colleagues in a number of fields, including the sciences. In this respect, it points in a direction that future humanities scholars will need to go if they, too, wish to flourish."---David Wharton, Weekly Standard
"Intriguing. . . . [Y]ou can think of this book as how an economist might think about ancient Greece."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
"This challenging book is like no other history of the ancient world. . . . [Ober] produces some engaging and striking analyses of familiar historical episodes."
"A thought-provoking book with great depth. As the great political theorists of the modern era have always known, the ancient Greek experience provides immense empirical material to mine for insights into political science: how we design rules of politics to secure human freedom and well-being. We ignore the experience of classical civilization to our own disadvantage."---Jason Sorens, The American Conservative
"His narrative history of Greek efflorescence is engaging and full of insights."---Richard Seaford, Literary Review
"This book is a groundbreaking examination of what Ober (political science, Stanford) calls the ‘efflorescence' of ancient Greece, which, divided into some 1,100 city-states as it was, developed a unified, dominant culture."
"[The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece] is by far [Ober's] most ambitious work to date, a magisterial tour of the successes and failures of various city-states throughout the Greek world from the archaic through the Hellenistic periods. . . . The thrust of the book is not just provocative but persuasive.""---Adriaan Lanni, The New Rambler
"A sharp and insightful economic history."---Daisy Dunn, History Today
Evaggelos Valiantos, Huffington Post:
"An attractive, informative, and timely picture of Greece from Homer to Aristotle. . . . It's an absorbing story full of excitement, drama and hope."
"[Ober¹s] central argument is that the achievements of Greek civilization were rooted in its prosperity, and that was the result of a rough economic and political equality. . . . [He] ranges over a half millennium of Greek history, from the 8th to the 3rd centuries BCE, seeking the roots of Greek "efflorescence"--its material and cultural flourishing. . . . [The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece] is rife with parallels to the present."---Brian Bethune, Macleans
"Ober marshals a wealth of new data to make the case for a much different view of Greek history . . . there was something distinct about the Greek world, he argues. What set the Greeks apart, he says, was their choice of a particular kind of order--and the cultural attitudes that went with it. Citizen self-government. Equality of standing among persons. Fair and open institutions. These ideas, unusual in history, were well developed in the Greek world, Ober notes. If we care about them, he says, we should pay attention."---Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education
"[T]his could turn out to be Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for classical Greece."---Jonathan Sturgeon, Flavorwire
"In the late fourth century B.C., Aristotle and his students collected the constitutions of more than 150 […] city-states. The scholar who would today follow in Aristotle's footsteps has to deal with a far more formidable mass of data. Few of today's scholars control more of this data, or write about it more insightfully, than Josiah Ober. [T]hose willing to put in the effort will learn much from the deep meditations of an expert historian and political philosopher."---James Romm, Wall Street Journal
"Superb."---Armand Marie Leroi, New York Times
"One of HistoryBuff.com’s 10 Can’t-Miss History Books of 2015"
"Shortlisted for the 2016 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society"
"One of Flavorwire’s 10 Must-Read Academic Books for 2015"
"Winner of the 2016 Douglass C. North Research Award, Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE)"
