This elegant and provocative book is perhaps more important now than when it was first published. The three essays that comprised the first edition developed a remarkable discourse between ancient Greek and modern conceptions of democracy, in the belief that each society could help us understand the other. To the original three essays, Sir M. I. Finley has added two that clarify and elaborate the thinking of the first edition.

The two new essays, "Athenian Dialogues" and "Censorship in Classical Antiquity" combine with "Leaders and Followers," "Democracy, Consensus, and the National Interest," "Socrates and After" to make this book an unusual inquiry. Few contemporary writers are able to bring to the subject the depth of learning and the persuasive power of language that Sir M. I. Finley brings.

A Master of Darwin College, Cambridge, from 1976 to 1982, M.I. Finley has since that time held the titles of Honorable Fellow at Darwin College and Honorable Doctor of Humanities and Literature at City College of New York. The essays in the first edition of this book were presented as part of the Mason Welch Gross Lectureship, established in honor of Rutgers University’s President Emeritus.