Kurt A. Raaflaub

About the Author

Kurt A. Raaflaub is the David Herlihy University Professor and Professor of Classics and History Emeritus at Brown University. His previous works include The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (2004), War and Peace in the Ancient World (Blackwell, 2006), Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece show more (with J. Ober and R. W. Wallace, 2007), Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modem Societies (with R. J. A. Talbert, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations (with J. Arnason and P. Wagner, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). His numerous publications include authorship or editorship of 20 scholarly books, in addition to more than 120 articles in journals and essay collections. show less

Includes the names: Kurt Raaflaub, K.A. Raaflaub, Kurt Raaflaub, Raaflaub A., Kurt

Series

Ancient World: Comparative Histories

Works by Kurt A. Raaflaub

Popular Recent

Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate (1990) — Editor — 49 copies

A Companion to Archaic Greece (2009) — Editor — 48 copies, 1 review

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece (2007) — Editor; Contributor — 41 copies

War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: Asia, The Mediterranean, Europe, and Mesoamerica (1999) — Editor — 40 copies

War and Peace in the Ancient World (Ancient World: Comparative Histories) (2007) — Editor — 23 copies

Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders (1986) — Editor — 19 copies

The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (1985) 18 copies

Epic and History (2009) — Editor — 16 copies

Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens (1999) — Editor — 15 copies

Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World (2013) — Editor — 13 copies

The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations (2013) — Editor — 12 copies

Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies (2010) — Editor — 8 copies

The Adventure of the Human Intellect: Self, Society, and the Divine in Ancient World Cultures (Ancient World: Comparative Histories) (2016) — Editor — 7 copies

Peace in the Ancient World: Concepts and Theories (Ancient World: Comparative Histories) (2016) 7 copies

More Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis (Historia - Einzelschriften) (1996) — Editor — 2 copies

Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis (Historia - Einzelschriften) (1995) — Editor — 2 copies

Zum Freiheitsbegriff der Griechen 1 copy

Vol. 31 (1997) "Politics and Interstate Relations in the World of Early Greek Poleis: Homer and Beyond" 1 copy

Democracy 2500?: Questions and Challenges (Colloquia and Conference Papers, No. 2) (1997) — Editor — 1 copy

The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations 1 copy

Egyptian Stories: A British Egyptological Tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the Occasion of His Retirement (Alter Orient Und Altes Testament) (2007) 1 copy

Politisches Denken und Krise der Polis. Athen im Verfassungskonflikt des späten 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, Vorträge 27) (1992) 1 copy

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece [Paperback] [2008] (Author) Kurt A. Raaflaub, Josiah Ober, Robert Wallace, Paul Cartledge, Cynthia Farrar 1 copy

The Landmark Julius Caesar Web Essays 1 copy

Anfänge politischen Denkens in der Antike: Die nahöstlichen Kulturen und die Griechen (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, 24) (German Edition) (1993) 1 copy

Studien zum attischen Seebund 1 copy

Dignitatis Contentio: Studien zur Motivation und politischen Taktik im Bürgerkrieg ZwischenCaesar und Pompeius 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Landmark Julius Caesar: The Complete Works (0058) — Editor — 471 copies, 3 reviews

The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (2000) — Contributor — 82 copies, 2 reviews

A Companion to the Roman Republic (2006) — Contributor — 76 copies

Men of Bronze : Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece (2013) — Contributor — 75 copies

A Companion to the Classical Greek World (2006) — Contributor — 64 copies

A Companion to Ancient Epic (2005) — Contributor — 50 copies

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles (2007) — Contributor — 42 copies

A Companion to Julius Caesar (2009) — Contributor — 38 copies

Demokratia: A Conversation on Democracies, Ancient and Modern (1996) — Contributor — 36 copies

A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought (2009) — Contributor — 34 copies

Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstitution of American Democracy (1994) — Contributor — 28 copies

A new companion to Homer (1997) — Contributor — 26 copies

Ancient Greece: From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer (Edinburgh Leventis Studies EUP) (2006) — Contributor — 25 copies

Brill's Companion to Thucydides (Brill's Companions in Classical Studies) (2006) — Contributor — 22 copies

Brill's companion to Herodotus (2002) — Contributor — 21 copies

A Companion to Tragedy (2005) — Contributor — 21 copies

The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece (1997) — Contributor — 21 copies

A Companion to Ancient Greek Government (2013) — Contributor — 18 copies

Transitions to Empire: Essays in Greco-Roman History, 360-146 B.C., in Honor of E. Badian (Oklahoma Series in Classical (1996) — Contributor — 17 copies

The Cambridge Companion to the Writings of Julius Caesar (2017) — Contributor — 17 copies

Popular Tyranny: Sovereignty and Its Discontents in Ancient Greece (2003) — Contributor — 16 copies

Augustus (Edinburgh Readings on the Ancient World) (2009) — Contributor — 12 copies

A Companion to Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World) (2014) — Contributor — 11 copies

Helots and Their Masters in Laconia and Messenia: Histories, Ideologies, Structures (2004) — Contributor — 11 copies

Ancient History: Recent Work and New Directions (1997) — Contributor — 11 copies

Ex Oriente Lex: Near Eastern Influences on Ancient Greek and Roman Law (2015) — Editor — 10 copies

Interpreting the Athenian empire (2009) — Contributor — 10 copies

Citizens of Discord: Rome and Its Civil Wars (2010) — Contributor — 9 copies

Athenian Democracy at War (2018) — Foreword — 8 copies

War and democracy : a comparative study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War (2000) — Contributor — 8 copies

Archaic Greece: New Approaches and New Evidence (1998) — Contributor — 8 copies

Federalism in Greek Antiquity (2015) — Contributor — 7 copies

Polis and Politics: Studies in Ancient Greek History (2000) — Contributor — 7 copies

Solon of Athens: New Historical and Philological Approaches (Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava Supplementum) (Mnemosyne Supplements) (2006) — Contributor — 6 copies

Free Speech in Classical Antiquity (2004) — Contributor — 6 copies

Brill's companion to Sophocles (2012) — Contributor — 6 copies

Caesar Against Liberty? Perspectives on His Autocracy Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar 11 (ARCA, Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs) (2003) — Contributor — 5 copies

Thucydides Between History and Literature (2013) — Contributor — 5 copies

Gesetzgebung in antiken gesellschaften : Israel, Griechenland, Rom (2007) — Contributor — 4 copies

The Children of Herodotus: Greek and Roman Historiography and Related Genres (2008) — Contributor — 4 copies

How to Do Things with History: New Approaches to Ancient Greece (2018) — Contributor — 4 copies

Arktouros : Hellenic studies presented to Bernard M. W. Knox on the occasion of his 65th birthday (1979) — Contributor — 3 copies

Arethusa (vol 20 no 1 and 2): Herodotus and the Invention of History (1987) — Contributor — 3 copies

Intentional History: Spinning Time in Ancient Greece (2010) — Contributor — 1 copy

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ancient (6) Ancient Greece (18) Ancient Greek History (3) ancient history (25) Ancient Warfare (4) Archaic Greece (5) Athens (4) Augustus (4) classics (3) democracy (3) Greece (9) Greek History (4) historiography (3) history (34) History culture (4) la_4 (3) literature (3) medieval (3) medieval history (2) military (3) military history (4) non-fiction (9) own (4) PDF (5) political science (6) politics (5) QL (3) Roman History (8) Rome (3) to-read (7)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Raaflaub, Kurt Arnold
Other names: Raaflaub, K. A.
Birthdate: 1941-02-15
Gender: male
Education: University of Basel (PhD|Ancient History|1970)
Occupations: professor
historian
classicist
Organizations: Brown University
Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington D.C.
Awards and honors: Corresponding Member, German Archaeological Institute
James Henry Breasted Prize (2004)
Relationships: Boedeker, Deborah (wife)
Nationality: USA
Switzerland (birth)
Birthplace: Buea, Cameroon
Places of residence: Basel, Switzerland
Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Members

Reviews

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1 review

bookomaniac 3,629 reviews

A Companion to Archaic Greece (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World Book 197) by Kurt A. Raaflaub

This is a fairly in-depth academic study of the earliest Greek period, roughly 800 to 500 BCE, so before the classical Golden Age. The book offers 33 articles by specialists from various countries, though the majority are Anglo-Saxon. After some introductory overviews, it delves deeply into various regions and a dozen themes. Naturally, there's considerable variation in quality between the articles. But for those who really want to delve deeper, this is definitely recommended. More show more information can be found in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7828058291. show less

Aug 27, 2025