In stock
A01=Carol Atack
Ancient Classics
ancient Greek education
ancient history
Aristotle
Athenian democracy
Athens
Atlantis
Author_Carol Atack
Category=JNA
Category=NHC
Category=NHD
Category=QDHA
classical philosophy
Classics
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Greek history
Greek philosophy
history of democracy
history of sexuality
justice
philosophy history
philosophy of history
Plato's Apology
Plato's Letters
polis
politics
Pythagoreanism
Republic
Socrates
Symposium
Product details
- ISBN 9781836392057
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 2026
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Plato is a key figure from the beginnings of Western philosophy, yet the impact of his lived experience on his thought has rarely been explored. Plato lived in turbulent times, born during a war that led to Athens’s defeat and decline. A restored democracy enabled the execution of his teacher Socrates.
Carol Atack explores how his life in Athens influenced Plato’s thinking, how he developed the Socratic dialogue into a powerful philosophical tool and how he used the institutions of Athenian society to create a compelling imaginative world. Now available in paperback, this accessibly written book shows how Plato made Athens the place where diverse ideas were integrated into a new way of approaching big questions about existence and the societies we create, then and now.
Carol Atack is a Fellow of Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she teaches classical Greek and ancient philosophy. She is the author of The Discourse of Kingship in Classical Greece (2019) and Anachronism and Antiquity (with Tim Rood and Tom Phillips, 2020).
