About: The Other Greeks

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization is a 1995 book by Victor Davis Hanson, in which the author describes the underlying agriculturally centered laws, warfare, and family life of the Greek Archaic or polis period. Hanson's central argument is that the Greeks who farmed the countrysides of the Greek Archaic period ("the Other Greeks") are responsible for the rise of representative governments, promotion of the middle class, amateur militias composed of citizens, and other values of Western Culture, not the widely written about Greek intelligentsia. Hanson aims to connect the rises and falls of varying governments to the degree to which homesteading is a widespread practice among the populace.