Democracy was born in Athens. From the city's founding myths to its golden age and chaotic downfall, this timely and well-informed political history is rich with lessons for contemporary America.Why did vital civic engagement and fair debate in Athens...

A vivid portrait of the early years of biblical archaeology from the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization CollapsedIn 1925, James Henry Breasted, famed Egyptologist and director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, sent...

A beautifully illustrated study of the caves at Dunhuang, exploring how this important Buddhist site has been visualized from its creation to todaySituated at the crossroads of the northern and southern routes of the ancient silk routes in western China,...

A remarkably complete compendium of modern scholarship on all aspects of Ancient Greek and Roman civilization, The Oxford Classical Dictionary includes entries on individual names, events, and places as well as survey articles that provide literary and...

Throughout Western history, there have been those who felt compelled to share a dissenting opinion on public matters, while still hoping to avoid the social, political, and even criminal consequences for exercising free speech. In this collection of...

Timeless advice on how to be a successful leader in any fieldThe ancient biographer and essayist Plutarch thought deeply about the leadership qualities of the eminent Greeks and Romans he profiled in his famous—and massive—Lives, including politicians...

How does a culture become Christian, especially one that is heir to such ancient traditions and spectacular monuments as Egypt? This book offers a new model for envisioning the process of Christianization by looking at the construction of Christianity in...

The remarkable excavation of a previously unidentified city in Israel from the time of King David, shedding new light on the link between the bible and historyKing David is a pivotal figure in the Bible, which tells his life story in detail and gives...

How we came to seek absolute good in religion and nature—and why that quest often leads us astrayPeople have long looked to nature and the divine as paths to the good. In this panoramic meditation on the harmonious life, Michael Mayerfeld Bell traces how...

From the 1880s through the 1920s a motley collection of American scholars, soldiers of fortune, institutional bureaucrats, and financiers created the academic fields that give us our knowledge of the ancient Near East. Bruce Kuklick's new book begins...

The Gibb Memorial Trust was founded in 1902 in memory of Elias John Wilkinson Gibb, a scholar who devoted his life to researching the history, literature, philosophy and religion of the Turks, Persians and Arabs. His particular interest was the poetry of...

The Greeks and Romans lived according to a distinctively Hellenic conception of time as an aspect of cosmic order and regularity. Appropriating ideas from Egypt and the Near East, the Greeks integrated them into a cosmological framework governed by...

How rulers in ancient and medieval Europe expressed their power through cities, buildings, and sitesThe Power of Place explores the nature of power—the power of kings, emperors, and popes—through the places that these rulers created or developed,...

It's a familiar story: a beautiful woman is abducted and her husband journeys to recover her. This story’s best-known incarnation is also a central Greek myth—the abduction of Helen that led to the Trojan War. Stealing Helen surveys a vast range of...

Dream interpretation was a prominent feature of the intellectual and imaginative world of late antiquity, for martyrs and magicians, philosophers and theologians, polytheists and monotheists alike. Finding it difficult to account for the prevalence of...