The Adventure of the Human Intellect presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds.

• Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship
• Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas
• Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine
• Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges
• Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations
• Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar

About the Author
Kurt A. Raaflaub is the David Herlihy University Professor & Professor of Classics and History Emeritus at Brown University. His previous works include The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (2004), War and Peace in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece (with J. Ober and R. W. Wallace, 2007), Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies (with R. J. A. Talbert, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations (with J. Arnason and P. Wagner, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). His numerous publications include authorship or editorship of 20 scholarly books, in addition to more than 120 articles in journals and essay collections.

Reviews
"...a modern remake of the classic. ...Raaflaub has further raised the bar for the present volume, including chapters not just on ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Israel, but also on Greece, Rome, China, India, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and Native North Americans. ...A truly global work that will be a welcome addition to a range of intellectual history and World-Civ courses. ...an excellent resource, well put together and comprehensive in all the right ways." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review



Book Information
ISBN 9781119162551
Author Kurt A. Raaflaub
Format Hardback
Page Count 280
Imprint Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 246mm * 173mm * 20mm