M. I. Finley
An Ancient Historian and his Impact

An assessment of how the most famous ancient historian of the twentieth century achieved his impact.

Daniel Jew (Edited by), Robin Osborne (Edited by), Michael Scott (Edited by)

9781316603536, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 January 2020

351 pages, 9 b/w illus. 3 tables
21.7 x 14 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

M. I. Finley (1912–86) was the most famous ancient historian of his generation. He was admired by his peers, and was Professor of Ancient History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of the British Academy. His unmistakable voice was familiar to tens of thousands of radio listeners, his polemical reviews and other journalism were found all over the broadsheets and weeklies, and his scholarly as well as his popular works sold in very large numbers as Penguin paperbacks. Yet this was also a man dismissed from his job at Rutgers University when he refused to answer the question of whether he was or had ever been a member of the Communist Party. This pioneering volume assesses Finley's achievements and analyses the nature of the impact of this charismatic individual and the means by which he changed the world of ancient history.

1. Introduction: Finley's impact - a balance sheet Daniel Jew, Robin Osborne and Michael Scott
2. The making of Moses Finley Daniel P. Tompkins
3. The impact of Studies in Land and Credit Paul Millett
4. Finley's impact on Homer Robin Osborne
5. Finley's slavery Kostas Vlassopoulos
6. Finley and Sicily Jonathan R. W. Prag
7. Finley and the teaching of ancient history Dorothy J. Thompson
8. Finley's journalism Mary Beard
9. Finley and the University of Cambridge Geoffrey Lloyd
10. Finley and other scholars: the case of Finley and Momigliano Peter Garnsey
11. Finley's democracy Paul Cartledge
12. Finley and the ancient economy Alessandro Launaro
13. Finley and archaeology Jennifer Gates-Foster
14. Finley's impact on the continent Wilfried Nippel
15. Measuring Finley's impact Walter Scheidel.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Biography: historical, political & military [BGH]