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Approaches to Ancient History

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Approaches to Ancient History Week 5: Ancient and Modern Which are the key theoretical terms? The Roman economy was under-developed. This means essentially that the ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Approaches to Ancient History


1
Approaches to Ancient History
  • Week 5 Ancient and Modern

2
Which are the key theoretical terms?
  • The Roman economy was under-developed. This
    means essentially that the mass of the population
    lived at or near subsistence level. In a typical
    underdeveloped, pre-industrial economy, a large
    proportion of the labour force is employed in
    agriculture, which is the main avenue for
    investment and source of wealth. The level of
    investment in manufacturing industries is low.
    Resources that might in theory be devoted to
    growth-inducing investment are diverted into
    consumption or into unproductive speculation and
    usury.

3
Primitivists and Modernisers
  • Different conceptions of nature of antiquity.
  • Volume of activity optimism or pessimism?
  • Nature of activity differences b/w ancient and
    modern quantitative or qualitative?
  • Role of economy in society separate or embedded,
    dominant or subordinate?
  • Nature of evidence material or textual and
    ways in which it is interpreted

4
Theoretical Issues
  • Formalism and Substantivism the status and
    usefulness of economics.
  • Concepts and vocabulary trade investment
    capitalism bourgeois
  • Process no change before industrial revolution?
    Natural development?
  • Determinism economy or culture?

5
Key points of debate
  • Development of trade and the market
  • Introduction of money and coinage
  • Motives for slavery
  • Nature of cities and their economies
  • Economic activities of landed elite
  • Role of the state
  • Ancient globalisation?

6
Wider issues
  • Value judgements the modern (or a particular
    version of it) as normative
  • Grand narrative development on the western model
    as inevitable?
  • Politics attitudes towards modern world and
    Third World capitalism as specific to particular
    historical context?
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