Hillsdale College History 101: “The Greek Miracle”

Welcome to part 3 of Hillsdale College’s 10-part lecture series: History 101: Western Heritage.

OVERVIEW

The emergence of the polis as a political form distinguished Greece from its neighbors in the ancient Near East.  The polis was a small community—originally grouped around a citadel—governed by a council and a public assembly, and defended by a hoplite phalanx.  Oikonomia (household management) was structured in such a way as to enable full political participation of the household in the city, through words and deeds worthy of note. The individual man who engaged in reasoned speech (logos) thus had an importance in the Greek community that was unusual compared to the other civilizations of the Near East, which were generally organized as hydraulic societies based on irrigation and public works, governed by a sacral monarchy, and administered by a bureaucratic class using the technology of syllabic script.  Each lecture is approximately 40 minutes.

Study Guide - “The Greek Miracle”

ABOUT THE LECTURER

Paul A. Rahe holds The Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College, where he is Professor of History. He majored in History, the Arts and Letters at Yale University, read Litterae Humaniores at Oxford University’s Wadham College on a Rhodes Scholarship, and then returned to Yale to do his Ph.D. in ancient Greek history under the direction of Donald Kagan. He is the author of Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution (1992) and of Against Throne and Altar: Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic (2008), co-editor of Montesquieu’s Science of Politics: Essays on the Spirit of Laws (2001), and editor of Machiavelli’s Liberal Republican Legacy (2006). In 2009, Professor Rahe published two books: Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic, and Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect. He is currently working on a history of classical Sparta, tentatively entitled The Spartan Way of War, and he is a frequent contributor on contemporary politics and culture to the website Ricochet.

Hillsdale College History 101: "The Hebrew Legacy"

Welcome to part 2 of Hillsdale College’s 10-part lecture series: History 101: Western Heritage.

OVERVIEW

The Hebrew people are the source of a unique but vital contribution to our Western heritage.  Rather than bequeathing to their cultural heirs magnificent innovations in art, architecture, political theory, and public administration as have the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, it is the treasure of sacred literature which constitutes the Hebrew legacy.  The tradition of a monotheistic religion upon which Christianity would build, and out of which the modern world would emerge, has arguably served as the wellspring of Western civilization.  If you missed Part 1 in this 10-part series, it can be found here.

ABOUT THE LECTURER

Mark Kalthoff is Professor of History and holds the Henry Salvatori Chair of History and Traditional Values at Hillsdale College where he has taught since 1989.

He completed his undergraduate study at Hillsdale College, where he majored in history, biology, and mathematics and graduated summa cum laude and class salutatorian in 1984. Dr. Kalthoff then earned the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, specializing in the historical relations between science and religion.

STUDY GUIDE—“The Hebrew Legacy"

Next Wednesda, December19, we will present part 3:  “The Greek Miracle.”