Peasant-Citizen and Slave

The Foundations of Athenian Democracy

Part of the Verso World History series

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1 Paperback Paperback with free ebook $26.95 $13.48 50% off 224 pages / November 2015 / 9781784781026 Ebook Ebook $9.99 FREE 100% off Read on any device November 2015 / 9781784781972 Paperback Paperback with free ebook $19.95 $13.96 30% off 224 pages / July 1989 / 9780860919117

The controversial thesis at the center of this study is that, despite the importance of slavery in Athenian society, the most distinctive characteristic of Athenian democracy was the unprecedented prominence it gave to free labor. Wood argues that the emergence of the peasant as citizen, juridically and politically independent, accounts for much that is remarkable in Athenian political institutions and culture.


From a survey of historical writings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the focus of which distorted later debates, Wood goes on to take issue with influential arguments, such as those of G.E.M. de Ste Croix, about the importance of slavery in agricultural production. The social, political and cultural influence of the peasant-citizen is explored in a way which questions some of the most cherished conventions of Marxist and non-Marxist historiography.