Oh, Stone's book is scholarly, just not academic. I am not in a position to endorse it or not; I don't know enough ancient philosophy or Greek (Stone learned Greek to write the book). However I will say this, generally, that it is probably a mistake to go around looking for heroes and villians in ancient Greece that correspond to modern values, at least if you want understanding. Greek democracy was nothing like modern democracy; it had no problem with slavery or disenfranchisement of women, for example; and it was often cruel, capricious, and stupid, while ancient aristocracies and monarchies often brought stability and peace that democracies upset. If Thucydides is right, Athenian demagogues were largely resposible for the disastrous prolongation of the Peloponesian War, the infamous massacre of the Melians, etc. Course T was a pro-aristocratic general in exile with scores to settle, but he was a graet historian and a keen analyst. --jks
I've always felt that the sophists were the victims of the first smear campaign in recorded history. A good (if non-scholarly) book on the totalitarian aspect of Socrates' thought is I.F. Stone's "The Trial of Socrates".
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