Law & Liberty Reviews New Book by Bard Professor James Romm
James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics James Romm.
The latest book by James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics James Romm was reviewed in Law & Liberty. Demosthenes: Democracy’s Defender is about the Greek orator, born in 348 BCE, who convinced the Athenian Assembly to confront the Macedonians. Romm covers Demosthenes’s life in “diminished times” during the conquest of Greece and extrapolates lessons about democracy for the current day. Graham McAleer writes that Romm’s “fast-paced” biography provides a valuable perspective on Demosthenes’s charge to Athenians, in which he stated that “you cannot have been wrong [to] have taken on the danger of fighting for the freedom and safety of all.” Throughout the book, Romm examines the mind of a man who took on the challenge of saving Greek freedom, while also exploring how democracies can be destroyed by internal division and infighting.
The Classical Studies Program at Bard is an interdisciplinary field of study encompassing the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. The program seeks to understand the languages, literatures, histories, and cultures of the premodern Mediterranean world, and approaches these ancient societies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Post Date: 12-02-2025
The Classical Studies Program at Bard is an interdisciplinary field of study encompassing the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. The program seeks to understand the languages, literatures, histories, and cultures of the premodern Mediterranean world, and approaches these ancient societies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Post Date: 12-02-2025