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James Davidson

James Davidson’s books include Courtesans and Fishcakes, One Mykonos and The Greeks and Greek Love, which was published last year. He is a reader in ancient history at the University of Warwick.

From the London Review dated 1 November 2001

Bonkers about Boys

  • Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction edited by A.B. Bosworth and E.J. Baynham

For those suffering from millennial panic about the current state of history – all those Postmodernists on the non-fiction bestseller lists, all those fact-deniers occupying important professorial chairs, all those poor students who know what Marie Antoinette had for breakfast but not how she died – classics departments all over the country are offering courses of therapy: Alexander the Great. [ read more . . . ]

Selected bibliography

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In the LRB archive

Plato Made It Up · 19 June 2008

  • The Atlantis Story: A Short History of Plato’s Myth by Pierre Vidal-Naquet, translated by Janet Lloyd  Buy this book

subscriber-only content No Beast More Refined · 29 November 2007

Zeus Be Nice Now · 19 July 2007

  • Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum
  • Polytheism and Society at Athens by Robert Parker  Buy this book

subscriber-only content Adrift from Locality · 3 November 2005

  • Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture and Vice Versa by Marshall Sahlins  Buy this book

At the British Museum: James Davidson visits Persia’s ‘Forgotten Empire’ · 22 September 2005

Mr and Mr and Mrs and Mrs · 2 June 2005

  • The Friend by Alan Bray

I told you so! · 2 December 2004

Versailles with Panthers · 10 July 2003

  • From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire by Pierre Briant, translated by Peter Daniels
  • Ancient Persia from 550 BC to 650 AD: reissue by Josef Wiesehöfer, translated by Azizeh Azodi

Bonkers about Boys · 1 November 2001

  • Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction edited by A.B. Bosworth and E.J. Baynham

subscriber-only content Face to Face with Merce Cunningham · 2 November 2000

subscriber-only content Too Young · 21 September 2000

  • Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas by Douglas Murray

Clinging to the Sides of a Black, Precipitous Hole · 24 August 2000

  • The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens by Danielle Allen

Himbo · 5 March 1998

  • Apollonios Rhodios: The Argonautika translated by Peter Green

Not currently in the LRB archive

 not available in archive Feel what it’s like · 2 March 2000

  • A World Full of Gods: Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire by Keith Hopkins

 not available in archive An Easy Lay · 30 September 1999

  • Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy edited by Simon Goldhill and Robin Osborne
  • The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy edited by P.E. Easterling
  • Tragedy in Athens: Performance Space and Theatrical Meaning by David Wiles

 not available in archive How many gay men does it take to change an island? · 10 June 1999

 not available in archive Some Evil Thing · 18 February 1999

  • No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock by Marina Warner

 not available in archive History as a Bunch of Flowers · 20 August 1998

  • The Greeks and Greek Civilisation by Jacob Burckhardt, edited by Oswyn Murray, translated by Sheila Stern

 not available in archive Tall and Tanned and Young and Lovely · 18 June 1998

  • Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece by Andrew Stewart

 not available in archive Tuscanini · 16 April 1998

  • Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit by Mort Rosenblum

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