Slavery In Classical Antiquity.... (w/Signed Letter M. I. Finley to Daniel Bell)

Description: Full Title: Slavery In Classical Antiquity: Views And Controversies W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, Cambridge, England, 1960. Hardcover. This book was previously owned by the renowned sociologist, Daniel Bell. Bell was a student of M.I. Finley's at City College. He changed his major under the influence of Finley. They later became good friends. Inside this book was a long typed and signed letter from Finley to Bell, dated 16 August 1961. He mostly writes about dogs and food. Just kidding. It's pretty heady stuff. Seems as though Bell may have sought his help with regard to something he was working on. Here is a sense of the letter from the first of five paragraphs: 'Dear Dan, I know it sounds improbable, but the absence of an ideology or counter-ideology of labour in classical antiquity becomes more and more noticeable the more one looks for it. 'Fate' is of course always available as an explanation, but is that an ideology in the sense in which the expulsion from Eden or the doctrine of a calling was? I should think not. It really is true that the Greek language reflects the absence of a general idea of labour. This was first brought sharply home to me by the Vernant articles I cite.' He ends the letter writing 'I don't know how much this helps you, and someday I want myself to spend more time on the question. But that is about how it stands at the moment in my mind, and in the literature as far as I know. Yours sincerely, M. Finley.'The other side of this air mail letter shows the Columbia University address of Professor Bell and the Jesus College, Cambridge, England address of Professor Finley. There's also the imprint of a stamp with the image of a young Queen Elizabeth who would later bestow the honor of knighthood upon Moses Israel Finley. A signed letter from Professor Finley is quite rare. I haven't found another on the Internet. Professor Bell had also placed a letter he received from the editor-in-chief at Viking Press, Elizabeth Sifton, 20 years and 10 days from the time he received the earlier letter. It reads 'Dear Professor Bell: 'Here is another book of Moses Finley's, which Viking is scheduled for publication in the early winter of 1982. Moses and I both thought you ought to see the early proofs, which I hope will meet with your approval. With all good wishes, yours sincerely, Elizabeth Sifton.' I'm not sure which of Professor Finley's books she was referring to. He published several around that time. Professor Bell was teaching at Harvard at the time. Both letters that were inside this book are a part of the sale, the largest part of this sale is, of course, the first letter. Inside the book there is also a slip of paper with a few, short, penned remarks from Daniel Bell with regard to Slavery In Classical Antiquity. The essays in the book are written by A. H. M. Jones, W. L. Westermann, Joseph Vogt, M. I. Finley (Was Greek Civilization Based on Slave Labour?), Robert Schlaifer, Gregory the Vlastos, Henri Levy-Bruhl, M. L. Gordon, E. A. Thompson, and Marc Bloch. 'Sir Moses Israel Finley was an American-born British academic and classical scholar. His prosecution by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security during the 1950s, resulted in his relocation to England, where he became an English classical scholar and eventually master of Darwin College, Cambridge. His most notable publication was The Ancient Economy in which he argued that the economy in antiquity was governed by status and civic ideology, rather than rational economic motivations. Finley graduated magna cum laude at the age of 15 from Syracuse University. He later attended Columbia University.'

Price: 250 USD

Location: Pound Ridge, New York

End Time: 2025-02-04T03:37:33.000Z

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