Mary Beard
British classicist, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and author of SPQR and Pompeii.
Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology by Moses Finley
I think I've chosen these books because all of them made a big difference to me. I wouldn't be the person I am today without them. With Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology by Moses Finley it's all about politics.
on fivebooks.com · 29 Oct 2009
Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo by Mary Douglas
But, for me and still for many of my students, it's a book that really opened my eyes. It showed me that you could theorize about things that you had always taken for granted and thought didn't need explaining.
on fivebooks.com · 29 Oct 2009
The Annals by Tacitus
This is the best work of history ever written – that's a big claim.
on fivebooks.com · 29 Oct 2009
The Greeks and the Irrational by E R Dodds
This is one of the books that made me decide that classics was worth spending a lifetime on.
on fivebooks.com · 29 Oct 2009
The Last Days of Pompeii by E Bulwer Lytton
But also there is this incredible influence it has on anyone studying Pompeii. It's the classic Pompeii disaster story everybody replays when they write about Pompeii.
on fivebooks.com · 29 Oct 2009
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