{"product_id":"talking-classics-the-shock-of-the-old-1st-ed","title":"Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old (1ST ed.)","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A passionate defense particularly notable for its bracing lack of old fogeyism.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Kirkus\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMary Beard \u003c\/b\u003eis a distinguished classicist, international bestselling author, and popular television personality. She is professor emerita of classics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and professor of Ancient Literature at the Royal Academy, as well as being the classics editor of the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e, a fellow of the British Academy, and an international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her books include \u003ci\u003eSPQR: A History of Ancient Rome\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWomen and Power: A Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTwelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eEmperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Beard's enthusiastic sense of wonder remains undimmed.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"The Times\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e1. A Sense of Wonder\u003cbr\u003e2. How to be Modern?\u003cbr\u003e3. Rights and Wrongs\u003cbr\u003e4. The Case for Classics\u003cbr\u003eEpilogue: The Boy who Breathed on the Glass in the British Museum\u003cbr\u003eFurther Reading\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgements\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"The rock star scholar of Ancient Rome.\" \u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Financial Times\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Britain's most beloved intellectual.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Guardian\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \"The book feels as if Beard, with her excitement and good humor, is regaling an audience. . . . [S]tudents (current, former, and future) of classical education will savor Beard's rooted rumination on classics as both a discipline and a means of finding thauma.\" \u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Booklist\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Britain's most famous classicist is at the peak of her powers.'\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"The Times\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Her irreverence has turned her into a national treasure. . . [She] illuminates the present through the past.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Observer\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"The reigning Queen of Classics.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Spectator\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e: \"Beard informs and entertains.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Independent\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Mary Beard may be the most popular classicist in the world.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"ARTnews\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Few scholars make ancient Greece and Rome come alive as vividly--or seem as relatable--as Beard, the popular British classicist. Her latest book is a kaleidoscopic survey of some of the ancient people and objects, both awe-inducing and ordinary, that have delighted and intrigued her over her life and career--starting with a formative encounter at age 5 with a 4,000-year-old bread roll at the British Museum.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"New York Times Book Review\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"If classics has a grande dame, it is the actual Dame Mary Beard. . . [W]ide-ranging and entertaining . . . . \u003ci\u003eTalking Classics\u003c\/i\u003e is full of Beard's old joy at the unexpectedness of ancient realities.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"New York Times\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Like that ancient hunk of Egyptian bread that fascinated Mary Beard as a child, \u003ci\u003eTalking Classics \u003c\/i\u003eoffers readers plenty to chew on.\"\u003c\/p\u003e--Maureen Corrigan \"NPR, Fresh Air\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Brisk and lively.\"\u003c\/p\u003e--Harry Strawson \"Times Literary Supplement\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Britain's best-known classicist offers a spirited defence of her discipline. Like an archaeologist, she excavates classics from the layers of discourse that surround it.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \"Economist\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe incomparable Mary Beard is back, and she's talking all things classics.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Why the ongoing fascination with the ancient world? This witty, approachable book asks why--for better or (sometimes) worse--antiquity continues to exert such a powerful hold on the contemporary imagination. Recalling a formative childhood encounter with a four-thousand-year-old piece of bread in a museum, Beard introduces the idea of \n\u003ci\u003ethauma\u003c\/i\u003e, or wonder, that kick-started a lifetime engaging with classics. It was not the canonical \"greats\" of ancient literature and art that initially drew her in, she confesses, but rather the more intimate, messy, and humdrum evidence of daily life in the remote past. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Confronting the uses and abuses of symbols of the ancient world, Beard reminds us that the traditions and \"masterpieces\" of Greece and Rome have certainly been politicized, but they belong to neither the left nor the right. Happily, no one owns the past. She warns us not to let a sense of reverence or overfamiliarity dampen the \"shock of the old,\" arguing that one of the most important things that classics teach us is how to grapple with complicated and controversial things. \"The Greeks and Romans are long dead, they cannot answer back, and you can say what you like about them,\" she reminds readers. \"The simple fact that classics belong to none of us can offer a safe space to argue about the most difficult debates we face now.\" \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Beard welcomes everyone into classics. \"It is not compulsory to be excited by the ancient world,\" she writes. \"But it can be a shame not to be.\" This charming, sharp, and readable book from one of the world's most entertaining classicists offers something for both new and established fans of classics, bringing new wonder and curiosity to even the most ancient of ideas. \n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 04\/15\/2026 (EAN 9780226834245, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 05\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780226834245, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eBeard, Mary\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eMary Beard \u003c\/b\u003eis a distinguished classicist, international bestselling author, and popular television personality. She is professor emerita of classics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and professor of Ancient Literature at the Royal Academy, as well as being the classics editor of the \n\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e, a fellow of the British Academy, and an international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her books include \n\u003ci\u003eSPQR: A History of Ancient Rome\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eWomen and Power: A Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eTwelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern\u003c\/i\u003e, and \n\u003ci\u003eEmperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496252997910,"sku":"9780226834245","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780226834245.jpg?v=1783058353","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/talking-classics-the-shock-of-the-old-1st-ed","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}