Love, Sex and Tragedy: How the Ancient World Shapes Our Lives - Hardcover

"Confident, intelligent and assertive; [Love, Sex & Tragedy] stands up for 'classics' without apology, without snobbishness and without conservatism." - Oliver Taplin, Guardian "Goldhill... takes us through the looking glass into antiquity and shows us some of the sights that he thinks most interesting and informative....Anyone who goes on the journey will be amused, surprised, and enlightened." - Mary K. Lefkowitz, New York Sun "A passionate, witty, and broad-ranging exploration of the ancient foundations of our world.... There is a widening gap between our perceptions and the ancient sources. Goldhill closes that gap with this lively and multi-layered challenge to assumptions embedded in modern life." - Lizzie Speller, Observer "Goldhill writes with breezy wit in a style accessible to readers who did not grow up on Plato and Tacitus. This can disguise the fact that his intent is deadly serious, comparing the modern world to teenagers who believe themselves the first to discover sex and swear-words. If you do not know your history, he insists, you cannot be self-aware. As this brilliant book demonstrates, a familiarity with the ancient world is about much more than a life in ruins." - Joan Smith, Independent (UK)"

In "Love, Sex & Tragedy" Simon Goldhill lifts the veil on our inheritance of classical traditions and offers a witty, engrossing survey of the Greek and Roman roots of everything from our overwhelming mania for "hard bodies" to our political systems. Encompassing Karl Marx, Clark Gable, George W. Bush, Oscar Wilde, and Sigmund Freud, Goldhill takes great delight in tracing both follies and fundamental philosophical questions through the centuries and continents to the birthplace of Western civilization as we know it. Underlying his brisk and learned excursions through history and art is the foundational belief, following Cicero, that learning about the classics makes a critical difference to our self-understanding. Whether we are considering the role of religion in contemporary society, our expectations about the boundaries between public and private life, or even how we spend our free time, recognizing the role of the classics is integral to our comprehension of modern life and our place in it.