The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life

The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good LifeFrom the celebrated British author and historian: a brilliant new book combining historical inquiry and storytelling lan to paint an unprecedentedly vivid portrait of Socrates and the Golden Age of classical Athens. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty five centuries, he has

From the celebrated British author and historian: a brilliant new book combining historical inquiry and storytelling lan to paint an unprecedentedly vivid portrait of Socrates and the Golden Age of classical Athens.

We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty-five centuries, he has remained an enigma: a man who left no written legacy and about whom everything we know is hearsay. His life spanned "seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history." Athens in the fifth century B.C. was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy. Drawing on the latest sources--archaeological, topographical, and textual--Hughes re-creates the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there, and to illuminate for us the world as he experienced it.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 02/14/2012
ISBN: 9781400076017
Pages: 484
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.30w x 1.40d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 03/11/2012 pg. 28