David M. Pritchard : When French Historians of Ancient Greece Conquered the World

Certainly studying ancient Greece remains an important way to learn about many of Europe’s core values. Nevertheless the funeral oration of Pericles or any other Athenian speech for that matter is no lesson in peace. From their sombre history of the last two centuries Europeans have learnt that peace rests on peaceful norms, shared identities and conciliatory public discourses. This lesson is no less important than those from ancient Greece.