The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy

This authoritative introduction to and survey of the ancient Greek economy translates, updates, expands, and combines the author's original two-volume French edition. Bresson documents the unprecedented and unparalleled economic growth of the Greek world from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods. . . . [A] thoroughly informed masterwork.--Choice A milestone in the study of the economic history of antiquity. . . . Future work will be required to build upon the sturdy foundations laid by Bresson's work. . . . [It] deserves to be on the shelves of all classicists, but also historians and economists with an interest in the economic structures of the past.---David Lewis, Journal of Hellenic Studies In this lucid, fine-grained, at times meditative, and witty account of the economy of ancient Greece, Bresson's prose sparkles with a full command of the ancient sources, the economic history literature, and the debates about how to use both. This is a marvelous, evocative book that is sure to provoke reactions in many quarters. --J. G. Manning, Yale University This magisterial book provides an entirely new way of thinking about the ancient Greek economy. Alain Bresson is one of the world's leading authorities on the subject and has contributed mightily to reconfiguring the debate about it. Combining new theoretical approaches, a deep knowledge of ancient sources, and a remarkably wide reading in the economic history of other periods, he provides a comprehensive introduction full of detail, evidence, and argument. And he avoids jargon and insider talk, writing in a direct and clear prose that invites one in. This groundbreaking book will be read for many years to come. --Gary Reger, Trinity College What is truly outstanding about Alain Bresson is the range of his skills: in philology and archaeology but also in the social sciences, including demography, economics, sociology, and anthropology. This is a great book and a model of its kind. --Fran ois de Callatay, Royal Library of Belgium This book must surely sweep the field. Whether one is an undergraduate student, an early-career scholar, has been chewing over the ancient economy for a career, or is simply a general reader with a curiosity about how the ancient economy worked, this is now the go-to work. [Bresson] has produced a book that is at the same time something of an encyclopaedia of the ancient Greek economy, full of in-depth discussions about more or less every product and every economic phenomenon, a sourcebook of texts, particularly epigraphic texts, illustrating economic phenomena, and a book with an argument.---Professor Robin Osborne, Classics for All Winner of the 2017 James Henry Breasted Prize, American Historical Association