An informative, but plodding academic work with a broad scope. ( )

This is historiography, i.e. not history but history of history. How was Athenian democracy vieed throughout the 21/2 millennia since it briefly flourished. I knew that Plato didn't like it much and neither did Socrates, if his views can be seen separately..What is surprising is that writers ever since, at least until the 19th century, had little time for it either, preferring Sparta for its discipline and toughness, looking down on its apparent fickle mob rule or looking to Rome for its republican spirit. As for more recent commentators they tend to deny Athens was any kind of democracy because they had slaves and talk as if the Athenians invented slavery- but didn't everybody have slaves?
Elegantly written, with a touch of irony here and thereeven if at times hard to keep up with a string of scholars I've never heard of.Mind you I came to this on the recommendation of Cartledge's more recent book on similar theme, which was impossibly tangled in its own scholarliness.
Best quote in the book, and from an unexpected source:
"The meaning of democracy is precisely that the people, from time to time, should be called upon to judge the achievements and acts of a government, to judge whether the program of the government is of any use, or whether the men are of any use who take it upon themselves to execute that program"
A. Hitler. ( )