This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.

A series of in-depth examinations of the motion picture many consider to be Hollywood's finest western film. In many ways a traditional western, The Searchers (1956) is considered by critics as one of the greatest Hollywood films, made by the most influential of western directors. But John Ford's classic work, in its complexity and ambiguity, was a product of post-World War II American culture and sparked the deconstruction of the western film myth by looking unblinkingly at white racism and violence and suggesting its social and psychological origins. The Searchers tells the story of the kidnapping of the niece of Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) by Comanche Indians, and Edward's long search to find her--ultimately not to rescue her but to kill her, since he finds her racially and sexually violated. The Searchers: Essays and Reflections on John Ford's Classic Western brings historians and film scholars together to cover the major critical issues of this film as seen through a contemporary prism. The book also contains the first published sustained reaction to the film by Native Americans. The essays explore a wide range of topics: from John Wayne's grim character of Ethan Edwards, to the actual history of Indian captivity on the southern Plains, as well as the role of the film's music, setting, and mythic structure--all of which help the reader to understand what makes The Searchers such an enduring work.

This ground-breaking study is the first to employ modern international relations theory to place Roman militarism and expansion of power within the broader Mediterranean context of interstate anarchy. Arthur M. Eckstein challenges claims that Rome was an exceptionally warlike and aggressive state--not merely in modern but in ancient terms--by arguing that intense militarism and aggressiveness were common among all Mediterranean polities from ca 750 B.C. onwards.
In his wide-ranging and masterful narrative, Eckstein explains that international politics in the ancient Mediterranean world was, in political science terms, a multipolar anarchy: international law was minimal, and states struggled desperately for power and survival by means of warfare. Eventually, one state, the Republic of Rome, managed to create predominance and a sort of peace. Rome was certainly a militarized and aggressive state, but it was successful not because it was exceptional in its ruthlessness, Eckstein convincingly argues; rather, it was successful because of its exceptional ability to manage a large network of foreign allies, and to assimilate numerous foreigners within the polity itself. This book shows how these characteristics, in turn, gave Rome incomparably large resources for the grim struggle of states fostered by the Mediterranean anarchy--and hence they were key to Rome's unprecedented success.

"A major accomplishment. Eckstein's merit is to have demonstrated that Polybius was fully aware of the moral component of historiography and was able to reconcile this with the purposes of a responsible and critical scholarly historian."--Kurt Raaflaub, Director, Center for Hellenic Studies

"A major book on a major author, this fresh and stimulating interpretation represents a significant challenge to current specialist thinking. It forcefully raises the fundamental historiographic questions of praise and blame and the function of history."--Philip A. Stadter, Falk Professor in The Humanities, University of North Carolina

"In Polybius's Histories, as Eckstein so adroitly shows, politicians see their predecessors, even in defeat or failure, praised when they act nobly and responsibly, thus finding by example a code of ethical behavior and moral duty that remains a guide to conduct even in changin circumstances."--Richard Mitchell, author of Patricians and Plebians: The Origins of the Roman State (1990)

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.