Historicism and Its Consequences

Moreover, standard histories of Athens are riddled with the same kinds of problems that postcolonial critics have seen in the mainstream “histories” of non-western lifeworlds. To support this claim, the chapter considers three especially influential accounts of the formation of the Athenian politeia. In all three cases, this process is quite explicitly historicized as a story of modern-style “democratization,” as a progressive extension of a political or civic equality to every (male) Athenian, even though this account is quite strenuously resisted by all of our ancient sources. More generally, much as the postcolonial critique of historicism would lead us to expect, when we historicize demokratia as “democracy,” we inevitably end up figuring Athens as an incomplete or imperfect anticipation of a modern lifeworld, never as a fully realized version of itself.