Mark Golden has produced a superb book, an important substantive and methodological contribution to the social history of ancient Athens and a model for comparable studies... That Golden raises empirical and methodological questions while at the same time significantly advancing study of this important subject is a tribute to the intellectual honesty and vitality of his book.

This is not just a book of colourful description but one as well of vivid insight and lively debate—a debate, moreover, that is refreshingly free of ideological polemic and informed by a keen eye for the personal implications behind any social trend and of the individual psychology underlying the collective picture... Engaging and engrossing... A considerable achievement on the author's part.