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Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old
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About This Book
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF EMPEROR OF ROME AND SPQR'The rock star scholar of Ancient Rome' FINANCIAL TIMES 'The reigning Queen of Classics' SPECTATORWhat's exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption at Pompeii? Why should we be bothered with the distant past anyway? What's the point?The life, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome have something to offer everyone. They are not the property of wealthy white men only. They make us wonder how to make sense of people who lived long ago (from angry landlords to giggling senators) - and to think harder about our own world, to look at it differently.In Talking Classics, Mary Beard points to the surprising connections between antiquity and the present. From revolutionaries to dictators, Bob Dylan to Beyoncé, she joins forces with the varied modern characters who have been transfixed by the ancient world. It's not compulsory, she argues, to be excited by antiquity, but it's a shame not to be.After half a century teaching and studying classics, she fills the book with lively stories, curious facts and some good gossip. Talking Classics explains why the deep past does really affect us all.
Reviews
"Beard does this job very well ..."
"In this short and engaging new book, which is part memoir, part manifesto, the most prominent classicist of our time argues that the ancient world's appeal is not as a comfort blanket but as a disruptive challenge."
"When talking classics, Beard is certainly speaking to the academy, but students (current, former, and future) of classical education will savor Beard's rooted rumination on classics as both a discipline and a means of finding thauma."
"Full of Beard's old joy at the unexpectedness of ancient realities ..."
"In the lulls between anecdota, Beard sometimes dons her academic cap to add a dash of profundity."
"A passionate defense particularly notable for its bracing lack of old fogeyism."
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