Scholarship and Controversy - by Stephen Halliwell & Christopher Stray (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Written to celebrate the 100th birthday of Sir Kenneth Dover, this volume unites the two major elements in his life: the relatively private groundbreaking scholarly work he did on aspects of Greek language and history and the more public-facing roles he assumed in universities and at the British Academy that led to him being in the national spotlight later in his career. The contributors to this volume consider all the major facets of Dover's life and work, setting them in the context of the burgeoning field of the history of scholarship. Contributors include students and colleagues of Dover's at different stages of his career, while others are themselves leading experts in areas of Classics to which Dover devoted his energies"--

Book Synopsis

Written to celebrate the 100th birthday of Sir Kenneth Dover, this volume unites the two major elements in his life: the relatively private groundbreaking scholarly work he did on aspects of Greek language and history and the more public-facing roles he assumed in universities and at the British Academy that led to him being in the national spotlight later in his career.

The contributors to this volume consider all the major facets of Dover's life and work, setting them in the context of the burgeoning field of the history of scholarship. Contributors include students and colleagues of Dover's at different stages of his career, while others are themselves leading experts in areas of Classics to which Dover devoted his energies. Chapters on his academic works and the controversies he faced in public life are not bland celebrations of his legacy but critique and assess his life and work, ensuring that there is much to be learned not just about Dover but also about the fields he helped to shape.

Review Quotes

"Dover's monumental scholarly achievement, clothed in a clarity of exposition that is a lesson to us all, ranks him as the leading Hellenist of his generation, and one of the finest the world has seen. The questions that this admirably wide-ranging book has raised about some aspects of his methodology do not shake that judgment, and suggest as many questions about modern methodologies as they do about Dover's. As for the 'searingly honest' portrait he paints of himself in his autobiography, it remains largely unaffected and an extraordinary testament to the man himself." --Classics for All

"Brilliantly co-curated by the scholar who knew him and his extraordinary oeuvre most intimately ... An entirely suitable tribute." --Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Stephen Halliwell is Wardlaw Professor Emeritus of Greek at the University of St Andrews, UK. His books include Aristotle's Poetics (Bloomsbury, 1986), Greek Laughter: A Study of Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early Christianity (2008) and a commentary on Pseudo-Longinus, On the Sublime (2022).

Christopher Stray is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Swansea, UK. His publications include Classics Transformed: Schools, Universities, and Society 1830-1960 (1998) and Classics in Britain: Scholarship, Education, and Publishing 1800-2000 (2018).