tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post6661282286986482390..comments2023-04-05T08:04:07.514-04:00Comments on Bryn Mawr Classical Review: 2012.02.29Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-89950080644876653882012-02-16T16:14:31.032-05:002012-02-16T16:14:31.032-05:00Is this kind of self-promotion allowed? (Rather gr...Is this kind of self-promotion allowed? (Rather graceless and ill-informed...)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-4342835859453502552012-02-15T08:47:52.247-05:002012-02-15T08:47:52.247-05:00This review misrepresents the degree to which the ...This review misrepresents the degree to which the argument of this book reflects current academic thought. Though many scholars (including the reviewer) would not object to Harrison's approach, students of Achaemenid studies, especially those closely involved with the Achaemenid History Workshops, have worked very hard to mitigate the effects of Helleno-centric biases in modern scholarship. Yet Harrison restates the primacy of these sources in a manner that rehabilitates them uncritically. This book, then, is not an uncritical review of Achaemenid historiography, but rather the reassertion of an outdated stance presented in the guise of faint praise.<br /><br />Those interested in this topic should read T.C. McCaskie, '"As on a Darkling Plain:" Practitioners, Publics, Propagandists, and Ancient Historiography,' Comparative Studies in Society and History 54 (2012): 145-73 (noting especially pp. 172-3, where he comments explicitly on Harrison's book). Also relevant is H.P. Colburn, 'Orientalism, Postcolonialism and the Achaemenid Empire: Meditations on Bruce Lincoln's Religion, Empire and Torture,' Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 54.2 (2011): 87-103.Henry Colburnhttp://umich.academia.edu/HenryColburnnoreply@blogger.com