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Carol Atack

@carolatack.bsky.social

6.5K followers 740 following 390 posts

Ancient politics and political thought, modern art, Plato and Xenophon. Fellow of Newnham College, FRHistS. Cambridge and elsewhere. Recent books: Plato: a civic life (Reaktion) and Xenophon (Greece & Rome New Surveys in the Classics, Cambridge).

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Oct 25

It's here! My little 'Plato: a civic life', beautifully produced by @reaktionbooks.bsky.social. Thank you to everyone who helped along the way, especially @josephinequinn.bsky.social and Angie Hobbs for the generous quotes, and to Malcolm Schofield, who made Plato possible for me.

A book sits on a wooden shelf with a vase behind it. On the red cover three Doric columns are topped by the texts Plato: A civic life: Carol Atack

Back cover of the book. On top of a Doric column sit two texts:
'Philosophy is just the beginning in Carol Atack's page-turner. From Plato’s own travels and troubles to the strange life and peculiar death of his teacher Socrates, the struggles of his city at the hands of enemies at home and abroad to the efforts of its citizens to make sense of things in an era of unending crisis, this is a gripping account of Classical Athens under siege told through the sharp eyes and shifting ideas of its most notable son. '
Josephine Quinn, Professor of Ancient History, University of Oxford and author of How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History
'A richly enjoyable and illuminating account of Plato's life and its social and political contexts. Atack handles the wealth of scholarship with a deft touch: she provides considered support for her interpretations but never obscures the main, vivid narrative, into which she skilfully weaves a number of Plato's key ideas and arguments. '
Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy, University of Sheffield

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 4d

Also, excellent programme notes from @alexandrahardwick.bsky.social and @lucycmmjackson.bsky.social as well as a fascinating foyer display about past NT productions of Greek plays.

Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 4d

Mixed verdict on the @nationaltheatre.org.uk Bacchae - amazing staging and design, loved the chorus, some great performances. Deeply unconvinced though by the back-story given to Pentheus, and some of Dionysus' story - and the omission of Cadmus. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/...

Bacchae | National Theatre

Indhu Rubasingham (The Father and the Assassin) directs Nima Taleghani's (Heartstopper) version of the classic tragedy to the stage.

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 6d

Unmissable new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge - Made in Ancient Egypt explores this ancient culture through the makers of objects, their skills & the materials they used. Some exquisite objects - I liked this statuette. On show until April 2026.

Small statuette of a man holding a container. He is wearing a wrapped garment inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphics, which reveal that he was part of the court of the pharaoh Psammtek (Psammetichus, to readers of Herodotus)

Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 11d

I've been podcasting again! This time I spoke about how 'Plato: a civic life' provides the historical background to Plato's thought and helps to explain how his ideas developed - with Morteza Hajizadeh from New Books Network: newbooksnetwork.com/plato

Carol Atack, "Plato: A Civic Life" (Reaktion, 2025) - New Books Network

newbooksnetwork.com

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 14d

Coming late to this but we're spoilt for choice! The Old Oligarch's pamphlet would be my suggestion; explicitly ideological.

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 18d

My little Plato: a civic life, as reviewed in the New York Sun earlier this year - paywall but you can read one article for free.

Reaktion Books @reaktionbooks.bsky.social · 18d

Plato, the Philosopher Poised Between Oligarchy and Philosophy

📌 buff.ly/PSJcnsR [£]
📚 buff.ly/UnQMhFK

Plato, the Philosopher Poised Between Oligarchy and Philosophy

Plato's well known skepticism of democracy seems the result of his fear of what happens when you put things to a vote. That's how Socrates died — voted…

buff.ly

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 18d

Yes, let's! And there is more on pineapples - and the Decker family – in the catalogue for our 'Black Atlantic' exhibition, more recently.

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 18d

Come see our pineapples when you're in Cambridge! data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/1712

Pineapple grown in Sir Matthew Decker's garden at Richmond, Surrey: 357

A record for a Fitzwilliam Museum object: Painting 357

data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 18d

From a fabulous Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition back in 2019 (or thereabouts)!

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 20d

I know! The show has seven galleries full of equally powerful paintings; it’s an astonishing body of work, much borrowed for this show from US public & university art museums.

Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 20d

'Histories' by Kerry James Marshall at London's Royal Academy - a powerful survey of the American artist's work, his long practice of exploring Black experience and challenging simple stories. Full of humour and moments of delight as well as profound commentary, as in 1994's 'Great America'.

Kerry James Marshall, Great America, 1994. In the top right of a square paining, four black people sit in an amusement park boat ride, approaching a tunnel full of white ghosts over turquoise water with stylised waves. A translucent ghost hovers over water in the left side of the image. The lower right contains a scroll with the words 'Great America', but it looks as though other text has been erased, including the word FUN. At the top centre the word WOW appears on a bright red starburst splodge. There's an air of menace - has someone fallen overboard? Knowing American politics and the history of the Middle Passage, can we avoid seeing horror and menace lurking in the painting despite its beautiful touches?

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 23d

More about the exhibition and a booking link here: www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/plan-your-vi...

Made in Ancient Egypt

Made in Ancient Egypt exhibition at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 23d

Made in Ancient Egypt - Laura Cummings in the Observer on the artists and makers of ancient Egyptian art & the research that underpins the forthcoming Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition: observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

Face to face with the pharaohs’ tomb artists | The Observer

The painters and stonemasons of ancient Egypt have been erased from history, but a groundbreaking new exhibition brings them fully to life

observer.co.uk

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 25d

Important story about systemic failures - from the tragic state of Scarborough’s once magnificent Grand Hotel to the policy failures which have been exploited by private providers, at huge cost to the good of both communities and those in need.

Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 25d

FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system

on.ft.com/47HEE46

The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis

[FREE TO READ] How one hotelier built an empire from beloved community assets — and a government struggling to cope with a surge in migration

on.ft.com

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 7

It entirely passed me by that this @wsj.com article from February is in part a review of my Plato book!

rogueclassicist ~ david meadows @rogueclassicist.bsky.social · Jan 31

‘Plato’ and ‘Phocion’: Athens Beyond Democracy - WSJ
www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

‘Plato’ and ‘Phocion’: Athens Beyond Democracy

In the complex and often violent political arena of ancient Greece, ideals of civic engagement and self-determination mingled uneasily with the realities of power.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Carol Atack

Andy Keen @keenerclassics.bsky.social · Sep 5

Given the news about Melvyn Bragg stepping down from In Our Time, now might be a good time to share this list (thanks to Paul Cartledge for the reminder!) keenerclassics.wordpress.com/classics-in-...

Classics In Our Time Podcasts

This is a list of podcasts from BBC In Our Time. I originally posted this as a Blog Post in 2017, but now updating it to a Page to make it easier to edit. Latest update: 4 September 2025 Greek…

keenerclassics.wordpress.com

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Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Aug 29

I'm guessing that there may be some source imagery being copied - that's certainly the case for lots of the biblical imagery in the same room, which is much better researched than these little figures are.

Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Aug 29

From Burton Agnes Hall, a glorious late Elizabethan (1590s-1600s) country house near Bridlington, a riot of religious and moralising imagery with some classical moments, including a door jamb decorated with Saturn and Jupiter, in which Saturn is devouring a child...

An ornate door frame carved from wood features two figures as caryatids, taking the place of columns. On the left, the god Saturn is clutching and eating a child; on the right, a bearded Jupiter is accompanied by an eagle, standing at his feet and spreading its wings. They stand on column bases containing their names, and above their heads are vases containing fruit and flowers, as would be typical for a caryatid.

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Reposted by Carol Atack

Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · Aug 23

youtube version of plato's tyrant with @carolatack.bsky.social

youtu.be/GZnaz3nu_wQ

Plato's Tyrant with Carol Atack

YouTube video by Political Philosophy Podcast

youtu.be

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