Finley Hooper

In this selection of letters, notable Romans write about themselves and their times, as well as about personal and public matters. Seneca provides indignant remarks about the behavior of women in Nero's Rome. From his monastic cell in Bethlehem, St. Jerome berates St. Augustine for gossip he may have spread. Some letters give a different perspective to history, while other talk of harvests, marriages, and day-to-day events. For historical continuity, Hooper and Schwartz include a running commentary and brief biographical sketches on the writers. Matthew B. Schwartz teaches Ancient Literature and Bible at Wayne State and Lawrence Technological Universities. He has published a number of books, including The Fruit of Her Hands: A Psychology of Biblical Woman (2007), Biblical Stories for Psychotherapy and Counseling (2004), and most recently, Politics in the Hebrew Bible (2013). He has also written many articles and reviews and has served on the editorial boards of Menorah Review and the Journal of Psychology and Judaism. Finley Hooper (1922-1993), was formerly Professor Emeritus of history at Wayne State University. He served as Visiting Assistant Professor of History at University of Michigan, where he also earned his PhD. His other books include Greek Realities: Life and Thought in Ancient Greece (1978) and Roman Realities (1978).

"The study of the Greeks can never be a closed account. The wide variety of critical and descriptive works written about them . . . . bears witness to man's continuing preoccupation with himself. Other ages might talk of God or machines; the Greeks, from Homer to Diogenes, were fascinated with man. Plato's emphasis on the spiritual world and Diogenes' unheroic retreat may seem to be departures from the Greek way. But that would be true if there were a single Greek way. Obviously, there was not. It is the variety of ideas about man, who he is and who he hopes to be, which is the real Greek legacy . . . . This book [begins] with the rich tombs of Mycenaean kings who tried desperately to preserve what they had won. It ends with Diogenes and his fellow Cynics who say that it is better to let it all go. In between are the heroes, the art, the history which belong to the ancient Greeks. The questions they raised and the answers they offered are still the concern of us all."-Finley Hooper

Roman Realities recalls the experiences of the ancient Romans through a thousand years of their history, emphasizing the problems produced by their successes and the lessons to be learned from their failures. It is based on the major primary sources of Roman history, with illuminating paralells between ancient and modern times. As Finley Hooper says in his introduction, "Anyone concerned about present problems will profit from reading about how the Romans went about solving theirs--with the added advantage of knowing how it all turned out." Although scholars will find the events in this book familiar, they will not necessarily share its insights or agree with its interpretations. This is a book to read, enjoy--and argue about!