[publicclassics] [New Book] C. M. Barber - Politics in the Roman Republic: Perspectives from Niebuhr to Gelzer (Brill, 2022)

[Cary Barber]

Barber, Cary M. Politics in the Roman Republic: Perspectives from Niebuhr to Gelzer. Brill Research Perspectives in Ancient History. Leiden: Brill, 2022. Pp. x, 280. ISBN 9789004530003.

Author: Cary M. Barber (CSU San Bernardino, Dept. of History)

Title: Politics in the Roman Republic: Perspectives from Niebuhr to Gelzer (Brill, 2022)

Link to Sample Chapter: Introduction and Bibliography (Academia.edu)<https://csusb.academia.edu/CaryBarber/Books>

Abstract: This work provides historiographical surveys of four transformative historians: Barthold Niebuhr, Theodor Mommsen, Friedrich Münzer, and Matthias Gelzer. Close analysis of each author reveals their innovations – methodological, narrative, and philosophical – to be foundational to modern historical praxis, particularly within studies of the Roman Republic: these maestri rendered political history susceptible to ‘scientific’ inquiry, systematized available evidence, and crafted frameworks for reimagining premodernity. Likewise, their interventions on Republican political culture still define the discipline. Much, in other words, is owed to their efforts. Yet, the field has largely forgotten these scholars. Engagement, where it exists, consists of perfunctory review and repudiation, particularly in the Anglophone world. In response, this work advocates an alternative historiography balancing critical retrospection with pragmatic revitalization. Our four scholars are reevaluated. Standard critiques are refuted, and emphasis is placed on their texts’ utility: as exemplars, untapped fonts, but also cautionary models, whose establishment of conventional historicism demands scrutiny. In agreement with voices from related fields, the book calls for (re)considerations of ‘ideology’ and an ‘ontological turn’ in Roman political studies.

Promotional Blurb: B. G. Niebuhr, the founder of ‘modern history’, exerts an enduring influence; even in death, Goethe once claimed, ‘[Niebuhr] still walks around and works’. Today, Niebuhr is nevertheless a humbler phantom, rarely invoked and largely forgotten. Similar fates await the shades of Theodor Mommsen, Friedrich Münzer, and Matthias Gelzer. Yet, each demands reconsideration and revitalization. Their texts remain foundational, constituting the conceptual and methodological core of Republican political studies. Politics in the Roman Republic (re)presents the first critical, comprehensive, Anglophone survey of these scholars’ influence. Its innovative reassessments dispel deep-seated misconceptions and emphasize relevance. The work’s unique (re)interpretations render it essential reading for any student of Rome: specialist and non-specialist alike.

Readership: Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, specialist and non-specialist scholars.

Relevant Fields: Roman history; Greek history; ancient Mediterranean studies; Greek and Latin philology; historiography; and intellectual history (esp. of the 'Long Nineteenth Century').

Purchase Links: Brill<https://brill.com/display/title/63730?contents=editorial-content> and Goodreads.com<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62699340-politics-in-the-roman-republic>





Cary M. Barber
Assistant Professor of Ancient History
Department of History
Affordable Learning Solutions Coordinator
California State University San Bernardino
Email: cary.barber at csusb.edu
New Book: Politics in the Roman Republic: Perspectives from Niebuhr to Gelzer (Info<https://www.academia.edu/83824215/Politics_in_the_Roman_Republic_Perspectives_from_Niebuhr_to_Gelzer>  +  Purchase<https://brill.com/view/title/63730>)
https://csusb.academia.edu/CaryBarber

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