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Peter R. L. Brown (1935–)

Author of Augustine of Hippo: A Biography

Peter R. L. Brown is Peter Brown (1). For other authors named Peter Brown, see the disambiguation page.

Peter R. L. Brown (1) has been aliased into Peter R. L. Brown.

33+ Works 7,645 Members 65 Reviews 11 Favorited

Series

Works by Peter R. L. Brown

Works have been aliased into Peter R. L. Brown.

Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (1967) 1,962 copies
The Body and Society (1988) 695 copies
The Book of Kells (1980) 345 copies
Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (1999) — Editor — 262 copies
The Making of Late Antiquity (1978) 252 copies
Late Antiquity (1998) 37 copies

Associated Works

Works have been aliased into Peter R. L. Brown.

Before Sexuality (1990) — Contributor — 107 copies

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Common Knowledge

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Reviews

This was chosen by Michael Ledger-Lomas, author of Queen Victoria: This Thorny Crown (Oxford, 2021), as one of History Today’s Books of the Year 2023.

Find out why at HistoryToday.com.
 
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HistoryToday | 1 other review | Nov 24, 2023 |
I enjoyed Brown’s dense prose, and this is both engagingly written as well as packed with interesting information and references. The main focus of this book is on the continuation of paideia among the aristocratic elite, and the transference of the practice of parrhésia from the philosophers to the bishops as the Roman Empire became Christianized – the book deals mainly with the eastern provinces however. While Brown makes repeated references and comparisons with the decorum found in connection with the autocracy of 17th century France, there’s only little mention of, or comparisons made, with the paideia of the early Greek city states, or the Graeco-Roman world in general, in the centuries leading up to the period of late antiquity discussed in this book – except, indirectly, when briefly discussing (the image of) earlier philosophers in the subchapter about parrhésia. Brown also mentions only as an aside that parrhésia was never simply the exclusive domain of philosophers, without getting much further into that. Also, the way Brown presents it, you could easily get the impression that the Christian bishops were the first to ever give any attention to the existence of the noncitizen, and, as well, that this had never been used as a political argument before. However, he does show how increased immigration and urbanization lead to an upsurge of the noncitizen class in the East Roman cities, making it a more pressing social issue, along with that of underemployment, and how the bishops became "Controllers of the Crowds" (p. 103) and developed this argument (on behalf of the masses of noncitizens and abject poor; noncitizens were not necessarily poor) into a stance of moral authority, as representatives of the general populace, because "before the emperor, as before God, all subjects were poor" (p. 154).– Make no mistake about it; perhaps complementing the title of his book, Brown aims to persuade, and he generally manages well with that within the narrow focus of this study – yet, just because of its narrowness, it appears to some degree incomplete. Still, within its own limit, this is a noteworthy and compelling analysis.




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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saltr | 1 other review | Feb 15, 2023 |
A thorough and informative biography of one of the great writers and thinkers of ancient Rome. This is the definitive source for his life and thought. I found it was helpful when read along with The Confessions and City of God.
 
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jwhenderson | 13 other reviews | Aug 28, 2022 |

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Averil Cameron Contributor
Christopher Kelly Contributor, Preface
Henry Chadwick Contributor
Patrick J. Geary Contributor
Hugh Kennedy Contributor
Henry Maguire Contributor
Brent D. Shaw Contributor
Yizhar Hirschfeld Contributor
Richard Lim Contributor
Garth Fowden Contributor
John Kennedy Photographer
Béatrice Caseau Contributor
Béatrice Caseau Contributor
Christophe J. Goddard Contributor, Translator
Jennifer Thorp Contributor
Amy Wygant Contributor
Michele Napolitano Contributor
Nicholas Attfield Contributor
Anastasia Belina Contributor
Jason Geary Contributor
Bruno Forment Contributor
Roger Savage Contributor
Simone Beta Contributor
Reinhard Strohm Contributor
Christian Wolff Contributor
David Beard Contributor
Stephen Walsh Contributor
Wendy Heller Contributor
Michael Ewans Contributor
Robert Cowan Contributor
Simon Goldhill Contributor
Michael Burden Contributor
Robert C. Ketterer Contributor
Guido Clemente Contributor
Béatrice Caseau Contributor
Federico Fatti Contributor
Alan Cameron Contributor
Silvia Orlandi Contributor
Kate Cooper Contributor
Giorgio Bonamente Contributor
Sergio Knipe Contributor
Hervé Inglebert Contributor
Paolo Liverani Contributor
Francisco Marshall Contributor
Arnaldo Marcone Contributor
Giorgio Cracco Contributor
Maijastina Kahlos Contributor
Gianfranco Agosti Contributor
Johannes Hahn Contributor
Claude Lepelley Contributor
CARLOS MACHADO Contributor
Alberto Melloni Contributor
Gianmaria Zamagni Contributor
Pierre Chuvin Contributor
Guy Larrieu Photographer
Jonathan Benington Introduction
Elina Vuori Translator
Julie Guinard Translator
Michael Bayer Übersetzer
Béatrice Bonne Traduction

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