Book Launch - 'Poiesis: Manufacturing in Classical Athens'

Peter Acton, Alex Chernov AC QC

Peter Acton, founder and president of Humanities 21, has written a book! Please join us for the launch of Poiesis: Manufacturing in Classical Athens, on Tuesday 10 March at Tonic House.

Poiesis will be officially launched by The Honourable Alex Chernov AC QC, Governor of Victoria. This accessible and critically acclaimed book applies modern business analysis to classical Athens, shedding new light on ancient society.

This event is free but booking is essential: https://humanities21.com.au/event/book-launch-poiesis-manufacturing-classical-athens/

Poiesis: Manufacturing in Classical Athens has just been published by Oxford University Press to strong academic acclaim. An accessible book for the general reader as well as the classicist and historian, the book applies modern business analysis to industry structures in classical Athens, shedding new light on ancient society and the workings of Athenian democracy.Despite the fact that Athenians consumed great quantities of manufactured goods, and around half of the residents of classical Athens can be shown to have been more or less dependent for survival on manufacturing in some form, this subject has been almost completely neglected by historians, who usually focus on literature, art, politics and warfare. Poiesis presents a rare attempt to understand how Athenians made a living. It has implications for contemporary business analysis, and connects the humanities more closely with commerce.

The book presents the information in terms of contemporary business principles, drawing on supply and demand and risk-return analysis to explain events and choices.

‘….Acton’s book revolutionises the current views on the ancient economy…’ – Alain Bresson, University of Chicago.

‘….a pioneering academic advance…’ – Edward Cohen, University of Pennsylvania.

‘….a major contribution to the ongoing debates about the structure and performance of the ancient Greek economy…’ – Ian Morris, Stanford University.

By presenting a new paradigm of historical analysis, one complementing political, military, and literary perspectives, the book will be valuable to classicists and ancient and economic historians, while remaining accessible to the general reader.