Ep. 594 Why Was Classical Greece So Successful?
The Tom Woods Show
Tom Woods
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2016
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
The efflorescence of classical Greece was a period of enormous historical significance. How is this level of achievement and prosperity to be accounted for? We can't rely on explanations like climate or slavery that applied to many other, far less successful, civilizations. So what was it?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Tom Woods Show, episode 594. |
| 0:03.8 | Prepare to set fire to the index card of allowable opinion. |
| 0:08.6 | Your daily dose of Liberty Education starts here, the Tom Woods Show. |
| 0:15.0 | Hey, everybody, don't miss out on the event of the year. |
| 0:18.5 | Bob Murphy and I are hosting a cruise. |
| 0:22.4 | That's right, it's the Contra Cruise, October 9th to 16th, 2016 aboard Royal Caribbean. Check it out at contracruise.com. |
| 0:30.9 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the show. We're talking about classical Greece today, |
| 0:35.4 | and we're talking about how it is that this civilization |
| 0:39.3 | became so great in terms of its cultural achievements, in terms of its economic prosperity, |
| 0:47.3 | despite the fact that it was a decentralized civilization. |
| 0:52.3 | Well, perhaps we're thinking about it the wrong way if we say |
| 0:54.8 | despite its decentralization. So this is the interesting question that is asked and answered |
| 1:01.8 | in a brand new and intriguing book that I know you folks are going to find interesting. It's called |
| 1:07.7 | the rise and fall of classical Greece, and it's written by our guest |
| 1:11.3 | Josiah Ober. He goes by Josh. He is a professor in the School of Humanities and Science |
| 1:17.4 | at Stanford University. He previously taught at Princeton University. His other books include |
| 1:23.1 | Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens and political dissent in Democratic Athens. |
| 1:29.2 | So it's my pleasure to welcome Professor Ober to the show right now. |
| 1:32.7 | Josh, welcome to the show. |
| 1:34.0 | Very happy to be here. |
| 1:35.7 | I have not discussed classical Greece ever on the show. |
| 1:40.3 | This is episode 594. |
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