The Other Greeks

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization

200px Cover of the first edition
Author	Victor Davis Hanson
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Archaic Greece
Published	1995 (University of California Press)
Pages	596
ISBN	978-0520209350

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization is a 1995 book by Victor Davis Hanson. The book describes the underlying agriculturally centered laws, warfare, and family life of the Greek Archaic or polis period. The central argument of the work is that the Greeks who were farming the countrysides of the Greek Archaic period ("the Other Greeks") are responsible for the rise of representative governments, promotion of the middle class, amateur militias composed of citizens, and other values of Western Culture, not the widely written about Greek intelligentsia. The Other Greeks differs from typical historical analyses due to its inclusion of Hanson's own farming experiences as a viticulturalist in Southern California. As such, the tone of the book may be compared to an introductory college lecture as it is trying to reach both academics and the casual reader. Another goal of the book is to connect rises and falls of varying states and empires to the degree to which homesteading is a widespread practice among the populace.

Summary

Hanson argues that the Archaic Greek city-state or polis was an institution that grew out of the intensive farming of Greek countryside at the end of Greek Dark Ages. It is this group of free farmers who work their own land in mass that create the constitutional governments of the poleis. These poleis then primarily function to foster the practice of intensive farming by the voting class. The argument is divided into three sections: 1 - The Rise of The Small Farmer in Ancient Greece, 2 - The Preservation of Agrarianism, and 3 - To Lose a Culture.

Part One

After the fall of Mycenean Greece (1100 BC), Greece was left decentralized, depopulated, and had an abundance of land. At the time of the rise of intensive farming in Ancient Greece the population had increased. This increase in population caused an increased demand for food. This demand for food led the Greek populace to turn to land and animal husbandry. This process typically involved an individual converting lands far from old population centers and lands of marginal quality into small single family farms. Cultivation of these marginal lands was aimed at the production of olives, grapes, and cereal crops. The amount of work required to bring these crops to a successful harvest, especially grapes, created near constant work for the Ancient Greek homesteader. It is from this intensive agricultural practice that modern Western culture derived its notions of land ownership, hard work, individuality, and self-determination. Documents from the time show that the size of the Greek yeoman farm was roughly equal. This rough equality in farm size translated to a rough equality in material wealth and created a citizenry neither poor nor wealthy but situated in the middle of their society. Additionally, the daily struggle of the small farmer against nature created a shared sense of comradery among the yeomen due to the similarity of their experiences.

Part Two

The proliferation of the homestead in Archaic Greece created a class of equals who shard similar values. However, little formal governmental structure remained with the decentralization of Greece after the decline of Mycenean culture. Citizens of the countryside had a vested interest in creating a form of government that would benefit their interests as farmers. The polis developed under this framework. In the Greek polis, landed yeomen were typically the only citizens who could vote. As such, these "middling farmers" determined the laws of the polis in times of peace and decided when the polis would wage war.

Farming is nearly an all the time job, and the farmer cannot be away from the fields for extended periods of time without risking losses in yields and as a consequence the farmers own livelihood. If farmers were the people fighting the battles or wars of the Archaic Greek periods, it might be hypothesized that wars would be short in nature. Wars in Arachaic Greece were in fact short in nature; they lasted about 3 days, and occurred during the agricultural down-time of August. Hanson uses these lines of evidence to suggest that the hoplites who fought the battles of Archaic Greece were the yeomen farmers of Archaic Greece during peacetime. Thus, the ability to farm was seen as a duty to defend the farms of compatriots as well as determine the legislative direction of the polis.

Part Three

Part three scrutinizes the decline of the polis culture (in the most-strict sense of its usage) which occurred around 500 - 300 BC and is associated with Classical Greece. During the polis period the poleis farmers were taxed little by their respective governments. The departure from the model polis system of voting land-owners of middle wealth who farmed their own land and fought the wars of the polis occurred in different ways in different poleis. At Athens the building of a navy and the enfranchisement of landless thetes, Greeks who did not own land and typically rowed in the navy, caused a departure from the older system of government. With the creation of a mercenary class, wars could last for longer periods of time. However, the burden of paying for the states wars fell on the Greek yeoman. Marginal lands, i.e. many of the lands that Greek homesteads were located on, could not produce enough food to be viable in subsistence agricultural practice under the heavy taxes of the Classical period. This forced many yeomen off of their farms and potentially into serfdom as they may have found it easier to farm the productive lands located near the polis. The creation of unequal plots of land led to wealth disparity and thus the destruction of a form of government in which the voter or legislative representative is the same person who fights wars, and is producing the food of the country. The creation of unequal plots of land also destroyed the egalitarian nature of polis life. During Archaic Greece, the Greek yeomen had roughly the same amount of land, the same interests, and the same purchasing power. By Classical times, the veneration of individuality and equality had destroyed the very system of government it created.

Reception and influence

The Other Greeks has been called a masterpiece as well as a foundation for understanding the polis. While reviewers do discuss shortcomings such as failing to discuss the effect of slavery on polis culture or an overstatement of the case that agrarianism was the only common thread in Archaic Greece, reviews are generally positive.

Publication history

The book was first published in 1995 by the University of California Press. A second edition was published in 1999. The second edition was updated with a preface and a recent bibliography of the works of Victor Davis Hanson. The preface to the second edition discusses the impetuses for the books publication.