TY - BOOK AU - Zumbrunnen,John TI - Silence and democracy: Athenian politics in Thucydides' history SN - 9780271056555 AV - JC75.D36 Z86 2008eb U1 - 320.938/5 22 PY - 2008/// CY - University Park, Pa. PB - Pennsylvania State University Press KW - Thucydides. KW - History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides) KW - fast KW - Democracy KW - Greece KW - Athens KW - History KW - To 1500 KW - Political participation KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE KW - Political Process KW - General KW - bisacsh KW - PHILOSOPHY KW - Political KW - Politics and government KW - Demokratie KW - gnd KW - Politische Beteiligung KW - Athens (Greece) KW - Athen KW - Electronic books N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 192-197) and index; Athenian stasis and the quiet of the mob -- The silence of hoi Athenaioi : two modes of Athenian action in the history -- Deliberative action and Athenian "character" -- The silence of the demos and the challenges of political judgment : on the "decline" of Athenian politics -- Justice and empire : Athenian silence and the representation of Athens abroad -- Athenian silence and the fate of Plataea N2 - The role of elites vis--̀‰vis the mass public in the construction and successful functioning of democracy has long been of central interest to political theorists. In Silence and Democracy, John Zumbrunnen explores this theme in Thucydides' famous history of the Peloponnesian War as a way of focusing our thoughts about this relationship in our own modern democracy. In Periclean Athens, according to Thucydides, "what was in name a democracy became in actuality rule by the first man." This political transformation of Athenian political life raises the question of how to interpret the silence of the demos. Zumbrunnen distinguishes the "silence of contending voices" from the "collective silence of the demos," and finds the latter the more difficult and intriguing problem. It is in the complex interplay of silence, speech, and action that Zumbrunnen teases out the meaning of democracy for Thucydides in both its domestic and international dimensions and shows how we may benefit from the Thucydidean text in thinking about the ways in which the silence of ordinary citizens can enable the domineering machinations of political elites in America and elsewhere today UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=438380 ER -