![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Books 2010: politics and history
Jun. 25th, 2010 07:08 pmBooks 2010: 51-52
51. Anthony Price, Tomorrow's Ghost.
I'm not quite sure how to categorise this book. And the conclusion is fairly crushing, speaking emotionally: one does not necessarily expect a happy ending, but, well.
On the other hand, I think, technically speaking, it might be a minor masterpiece.
nonfiction
52. Sarah B. Pomeroy, The Murder of Regilla: A Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity, Harvard University Press, 2007.
Once again I'm going to point to someone else who's done the heavy lifting of analysing Pomeroy's scholarship in this work for us.
Pomeroy has more than won her spurs over the decades as a historian of women and the family in antiquity, particularly in Greek antiquity. But even Pomeroy's scholarly chops cannot make mountains where only molehills of evidence survive, and sadly, when it comes to the Roman Regilla, married to the Roman Greek Herodes Atticus and alleged to have been murdered by him, the molehills do not add up to a very clear picture at all.
The Murder of Regilla is in many ways a fascinating book, and an imaginative reconstruction of how the life of one particular wealthy Roman matron might have been. Yet, equally, to me it feels surprisingly lightweight, especially from a scholar with Pomeroy's track record. The Roman woman in general is far more of a ghost in the historical record than one might really prefer, and this most likely accounts for my impression. Anyway. A good book, accessible and enjoyable - and nothing to do with healing sanctuaries, which I'm supposed to be reading about.
51. Anthony Price, Tomorrow's Ghost.
I'm not quite sure how to categorise this book. And the conclusion is fairly crushing, speaking emotionally: one does not necessarily expect a happy ending, but, well.
On the other hand, I think, technically speaking, it might be a minor masterpiece.
nonfiction
52. Sarah B. Pomeroy, The Murder of Regilla: A Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity, Harvard University Press, 2007.
Once again I'm going to point to someone else who's done the heavy lifting of analysing Pomeroy's scholarship in this work for us.
Pomeroy has more than won her spurs over the decades as a historian of women and the family in antiquity, particularly in Greek antiquity. But even Pomeroy's scholarly chops cannot make mountains where only molehills of evidence survive, and sadly, when it comes to the Roman Regilla, married to the Roman Greek Herodes Atticus and alleged to have been murdered by him, the molehills do not add up to a very clear picture at all.
The Murder of Regilla is in many ways a fascinating book, and an imaginative reconstruction of how the life of one particular wealthy Roman matron might have been. Yet, equally, to me it feels surprisingly lightweight, especially from a scholar with Pomeroy's track record. The Roman woman in general is far more of a ghost in the historical record than one might really prefer, and this most likely accounts for my impression. Anyway. A good book, accessible and enjoyable - and nothing to do with healing sanctuaries, which I'm supposed to be reading about.
