The first democracy, established in ancient Greece more than 2,500 years ago, has served as the foundation for every democratic system of government instituted down the centuries. In this lively history, author Thomas N. Mitchell tells the full and remarkable story of how a radical new political order was born out of the revolutionary movements that swept through the Greek world in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., how it took firm hold and evolved over the next two hundred years, and how it was eventually undone by the invading Macedonian conquerors, a superior military power.

Mitchell's superb history addresses the most crucial issues surrounding this first paradigm of democratic governance, including what initially inspired the political beliefs underpinning it, the ways the system succeeded and failed, how it enabled both an empire and a cultural revolution that transformed the world of arts and philosophy, and the nature of the Achilles heel that hastened the demise of Athenian democracy.

THOMAS N. MITCHELL was a Deputy Chair of the Board through December 2017. He became a Director of Atlantic Philanthropies in 2002.

Professor Mitchell was Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1991 to 2001, Chair of its School of Classics from 1979 to 1988 and also served in senior administrative positions before becoming the Provost. Early in his career, he was Professor of Classics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and returned to the Republic of Ireland as Professor of Latin at Trinity College in 1979.

He has received acclaim for his work on Cicero and Roman Republicanism. Professor Mitchell is the author of three books and more than 25 articles in international journals on Roman, political and social history, and Roman constitutional law. His two-volume biography of Cicero, entitled Cicero: The Ascending Years and Cicero the Senior Statesman, has been described as a monumental work of biography.

Professor Mitchell is a Director of Hibernia College in Dublin. He is the former Chairman of the boards of St. James’s Hospital, the Ireland National Children’s Trust, and The Irish Council for Science, Engineering and Technology. He chaired the Press Industry Steering Committee to develop a model for independent complaints about the press and served as the first Chairman of the Press Council of Ireland. Professor Mitchell was a Director of the Trinity Foundation, the Community Foundation for Ireland and The Ireland Funds.

He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Philosophical Society, and holds honorary doctorates from eight universities, including the National University of Ireland, Charles University in Prague, the State University of New York and Victoria University, Melbourne. His other awards include election as a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

He graduated with first class honors with a B.A. and M.A. from University College Galway and earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University in New York and a Litt.D. from the University of Dublin.

Source: The Atlantic Philanthropies 

Photo Credit: Wikipedia 

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