Kenneth Royce Moore - Böcker

Sex and the Second-Best City deals with the topics of sex and society in the Laws of Plato with recourse to historical context and modern critical theory. It examines reconstructions of ancient "sexuality" with a view to increased clarification. The text of the Laws is considered, along with many of its literary qualities, its influences and the utopian plan that it proposes.

Sex and the Second-Best City deals with the topics of sex and society in the Laws of Plato with recourse to historical context and modern critical theory. It examines reconstructions of ancient "sexuality" with a view to increased clarification. The text of the Laws is considered, along with many of its literary qualities, its influences and the utopian plan that it proposes.

Surveying a diverse range of topics in relation to Alexander the Great and his legacy, this book offers innovative approaches and interpretations to our historical understanding of this controversial figure in both the ancient and modern periods. A study of Alexander the Great draws in many themes such as race, sex, class, gender, disability and ethnicity, all of which are examined in this volume. This intersectional study brings the history and the impact of the Alexander legend into dialogue to show that there is never just ‘one Alexander’, but a myriad of lives and receptions. Unlike many other studies on Alexander, this volume focuses on both the ‘elite’ – Arrian, Plutarch, Curtius Rufus, Diodorus Siculus and the Greek Alexander Romance tradition – and ‘non-elite’ narratives, such as the histories and 'folk' tales found in the Asiatic traditions. Rather than attempting to yield a greater understanding of the historical figure of Alexander, this volume argues that the varied collections of narratives from across the world and throughout history hold up a mirror to their respective ages, and also to the social classes from which they are derived. By using Alexander as a prism, we can better understand the social, political and religious attitudes of subsequent historical periods.

Dealing with themes of urban planning, constitutionalism, utopianism and social construction theory, this book analyzes the city of Magnesia, Plato's second-best city-state in the Laws, as if it were an actual ancient city-state. The book details the demographics, economics, military capabilities and polity of Magnesia using (post)modern critical theory and contemporary data on ancient city-states. Examining the key features of the proposed city-state in detail, Kenneth Royce Moore considers Plato's proposed military as well as his invention of national service, and compares this with known militaries of the era. The author demonstrates that economic growth is not its priority, highly restricted with an aim toward stability rather than expansion. Moore also considers the Magnesian political system in the light of existing polities of the era, concluding that Magnesia will have a strikingly different form of government than any other actual city-state in antiquity, albeit derived in no small part from Athenian, Cretan and Spartan traditions. This book puts "flesh on the bones" of Plato's fictional utopia and reveals how surprisingly practical it could have been.