Citizenship Bibliography

Primary Sources:
-Aristotle (Translated by Benjamin Jowett); Politics

Aristotle's Politics is divided into eight books addressing a variety of topics, briefly described as follows. Book I defines a political communitiy and compares it to the community of a household. Book II addresses ideal states, particularly those discussed by Plato, and then considers the well run states of Sparta, Crete, and Carthage. Book III considers citizens and the civic body, how to classify constitutions, and various forms of monarchy. Book IV focuses on variations of the main types of constitutions. Book V discusses revolutions, their causes, and how to avoid them. Book VI examines the organization of democracies and oligarchies. In Book VII, Aristotle relates his ideas of what is best for individuals and states, including many details regarding the best state such as the size of the population, territorial concerns, the best types of citizens, and the education system. Book VIII continues Aristotle's discussion of education of citizens.

The most relevent Book for my topic was Book III, as it considers citizens and the civic body. Therefore, that is the section that is cited in my discussion of Aristotle's Politics.

-Plato (Translated by Benjamin Jowett); Apology

Apology is Plato's version of Socrates's speech as he defends himself against the charges Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon have brought against him. His accusers claim that he has been corrupting youths and that he does not believe in the gods that the rest of the city believes in. Socrates does not apologize in the modern sense of the word, but rather explains that the claims are mistaken. He also questions Meletus and shows his arguments to be contradictory. Even when the jury finds him guilty, Socrates refuses to beg for forgiveness, and instead proposes his punishment be a small fine. The jury, likely angered by this proposition, sentences him to death and Socrates continues to assert his preference for death over dishonor until the end of the work.

-Plato (Translated by Desmond Lee); The Republic

Plato's Republic explores the concept of justice in societies and individuals. In order to examine these ideas, Plato proposes a city ruled by philosopher-kings. This is in contrast to the democratic ideas that fit the Athenian government of the time, but this disparity is significant because it confirms that the ancient Greeks questioned the entire concept of democracy, unlike most modern western societies. This examination of the various forms of government (albeit an idealized one) has laid the groundwork for numerous studies over the course of history and has made The Republic one of the most influential works of both political theory and philosophy.

-Thucydides (Translated by Richard Crawley); The History of the Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War is a major historical work in which Thucydides chronicles the 27 year war between Athens and Sparta. Despite the fact that Thucydides is an Athenian, this work is often held to be a fairly objective. This image of a scientific history is aided by the work's structure, which contains many first hand accounts, lists events in chronological order, and does not reference the gods the way many other works (like those of Herodotus) do.

Since The History of the Peloponnesian War is a lengthy work and not entirely related to the subject of this blog, my focus was on Pericles' Funeral Oration in Book 2. This funeral speech is significant in that it is a traditional public funeral for soldiers killed in battle, but the speech itself is not of the traditional form. Rather than simply honoring the dead and the ancestors, Pericles uses it as a platform to honor Athens and to push Athenians to strive for higher achievement. This includes interesting persepctives about the state, its citizens, and their rights and responsibilities

-United States Declaration of Independence
http://www.archives.gov/

The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence as a statement of why the American colonies were justified in separating themselves from England. The document lists 27 specific abuses that King George III was guilty of inflicting on the colonists along with general abuses of the colonists by the government authorities of England as well as its citizens

This document is important background reading for this blog because it lays out what releatively modern Americans considered inalienable rights and unacceptable trespasses. This was an important starting point to see where these ideas of individual and government rights overlapped or diverged from those of the ancients

-United States Constitution
http://www.archives.gov/

The US Constitution is the fundamental legal document of the United States by which all other laws are measured. It consists of a Preamble, 7 Articles, and 27 Amendments. The Preamble explaines why the Constitution was created, but it has no legal force. The first 3 articles establish the structure for the 3 branches of government (legislative, executive, and judiciary). Article 4 addresses the states and the relationships between their governments. Article 5 explains the process of amending the Constitution, while Article 6 establishes it as the supremem law of the land, and Article 7 outlines the process required to ratify/accept it.

I will not list all of the amendments here, but will mention that for the purposes of this blog the First Amendment is particularly important. The First Amendment includes the rights to free speech, free assembly, free press, free religion, and petition of the government. This is particularly important to our comparison of citizen rights and responsibilities across times and cultures because most Americans would agree that these are the most crucial and basic rights an individual should have.

Secondary Sources:

-Ehrenberg, Victor; The Greek State; Oxford, Blackwell, 1960

The Greek State considers mainly the origin, structure, and functions of the Hellenic and Hellenistic states. Following Ehrenberg's definitions of these two states, the ancient Athenian democracy falls into the Hellenic state, so I did not consider the Hellenistic portions of the book. The detailed section on citizenship proved especially useful as background studies for this blog.

-Gunnell, John; Imagining the American Polity: Political Science and the Discourse of Democracy; University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press

In Gunnell's own words, Imagining the American Polity is "primarily a study of the evolution of the vision of democracy in American political science". It is important to know how democracy has been defined/redefined over time because Americans consider the United States to be the ideal model of democracy without always knowing what that entails. Gunnell traces what exactly democracy means through the relationships between the concept of democracy and those of the state, liberalism, and pluralism.

-Loizou, Andros and Lesser, Harry (Editors); Polis and Politics: Essays in Greek Moral and Political Philosophy; Avebury, England; Gower Publishing Company Limited, 1990

This book contained several articles by separate authors on different ancient political topics.

-Richard, Carl; The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994

The Founders and the Classics gives an in depth explanation of the widely known fact that the Founding Fathers were very knowledgable about and interested in classical works. Richard explains how the Founders originally became interested in the classics through their education, the way that they appropriated various symbols and models based on their knowledge of ancient history, and their interaction with classical philosophy.

-Richard, Carl; Greeks and Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers; Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008

Greeks and Romans Bearing Gifts lays out a number of ways in which the Founding Fathers were influenced by Sparta, Athens, the fall of Greece to the Macedonians, Early Rome, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Emperors. Richard formats each chapter as a brief overview of the events of the era folowed by the lesson the Founders would have taken away from the classical records of those events. Since my focus is on the ancient Athenian democracy that we view as a sort of golden age, I paid particular attention to th chapter on "Athens and the Perils of Democracy"

-Saxonhouse, Arlene; Free Speech and Democracy in Ancient Athens; Cambridge University Press; New York City, 2006

In this book Saxonhouse explores the practice and limitations of free speech in ancient Athens through a wide variety of primary sources. She also compares and contrasts the modern concept of free speech and the tools required to achieve it with those of the ancient Athenians. This book was used to study free speech, which is one of the most important rights of citizens in a democracy.

-Woodruff, Paul; First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea ; Oxford University Press; New York City, 2005

In First Democracy Woodruff discusses what real democracy is compared to common imitations of democracy like voting, majority rule, and the presence of elected representatives. He then explains what he considers to be the seven essential characteristics of democracy, freedom from tyranny, harmony, rule of law, natural equality, citizen wisdom, reasoning without knowledge, and education. Finally, Woodruff assesses whether Americans are ready for a true democracy. This book proved very useful in comparing and contrasting our modern political culture and the ancient Athenian political culture against an idealized concept of democracy rather than against each other, which provided a unique perspective on both states.