Carol Atack
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carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack
@carolatack.bsky.social
6.6K followers 740 following 400 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). .. more

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carolatack.bsky.social
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

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 2h
I only found it because I spotted an ad on the S-Bahn! Worth checking what's in the gallery in future - it's the newish temporary exhibition space for the archaeology museums, in the building which will one day be a visitor welcome centre for the Pergamon Museum along with its neighbours.

Reposted by Carol Atack

lizgloyn.bsky.social
Rev. Dr. Liz Gloyn @lizgloyn.bsky.social · 5h
Very pleased to see the WCC UK restate its commitment to the support of trans and non-binary folk in the discipline, particularly in light of the current political climate.
WCC Supports Trans People - WCC-UK
Following a unanimous vote at the 2025 AGM, the Women’s Classical Committee UK wishes to reiterate its unwavering support for trans and non-binary people. We are deeply concerned at the harmful implic...
wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 7h
Another dedication made on behalf of a child - this small boy also holds a ball in his left hand, and is wearing a protective bulla (amulet) round his neck. Very moving to see parents' dedications on behalf of their children.
Bronze statue of a small boy, who is naked other than the protective amulet around his neck. He sits with his right hand raised, looking at something perhaps once held in his right hand; his left hand holdes a ball. Found in the sanctuary at San Casciano as part of the buried cache of statues and religious objects.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 7h
Another statue from San Casciano, showing a woman at prayer, with beautiful details of her dress.
Bronze statue of a woman, dramatically lit in an exhibtion case. She raises her arms in prayer. She wears a long dress, heavily draped, and her braided hair can be seen below here covered head.

Reposted by Peter Stewart

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 7h
Lucky to catch the last weekend of the stunning San Casciano bronzes' visit to Berlin - these sculptures were ritually buried at a Tuscan healing sanctuary in the 1st century CE after a lightning strike, & were excavated in the last few years. So revelatory about ancient religious practice
A bronze statue of a child wearing a tunic and holding a ball in its left hand - the ball was originally separate, and now returned to the hand it fits perfectly. The statue was originally dedicated at the healing sanctuary at San Casciano in Tuscany before being buried after the sanctuary was hit by lightning; the cache of sculptures and other objects discovered recently, and this statue excavated in 2024. Shown on display at the James Simon Galerie in Berlin as part of an exhbition organised by the Antikensammlung there.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 4d
Congratulations!

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 7d
'Nanti time like the present. come on, let's get it on...'. Loving Prof Jennifer Ingleheart's trio of translations of Catullus into Polari, the old language of gay Londoners, in Shearsman 145-6. www.shearsman.com/shearsman-ma...
Magazine cover of Shearsman 145 and 146; the cover image is a painting of St Ceciia, wearing a read dress and white head wrap, playing the viol with her gaze turned upwards, by Guido Reni.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 10d
Cambridge’s Black Atlantic connections, a major research project for the Fitzwilliam Museum - commemorating Olaudah Equiano’s Cambridgeshire family, www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student
Fitzwilliam Museum has uncovered student’s work from 1977 that revealed Cambridgeshire location of child’s burial place
www.theguardian.com

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 11d
The Almeida Theatre adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty captures the glamour and grime of 1980s London, where financial buccaneering, racial inequality and the AIDS crisis upended lives, but we all danced to excellent music. Five stars from me especially for the cast & the design.
Programme for 'The Line of Beauty' at the Almeida Theatre, featuring Jasper Talbot in character as Nick Guest, wearing a white vest with his arms raised.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 21d
Great story and important history from the National Army Museum in today's @theguardian.com - a newly acquired portrait shines a light on a Black veteran of Waterloo, one of several Black soldiers honoured for their service in the Napoleonic wars. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
London museum identifies black Waterloo veteran in rare 1821 painting
‘Honourable’ bandsman Thomas James will feature in display at National Army Museum highlighting service of black soldiers in Napoleonic wars
www.theguardian.com

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 28d
Have cheated but of course! That makes a lot of sense.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 29d
If you can't access BBC iPlayer, Myles' interview is also on Youtube...

Reposted by Jonathan Wolff

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · 29d
On BBC4 tonight, Angie Hobbs on Bryan Magee's series the Great Philosophers, first broadcast in 1987, followed by the first three interviews: Myles Burnyeat on Plato, Martha Nussbaum on Aristotle, and Anthony Kenny on mediaeval philosophy: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Four - Remembers..., Professor Angie Hobbs Remembers... The Great Philosophers
Professor Angie Hobbs gives a modern view on Bryan Magee’s highly influential 1987 series.
www.bbc.co.uk

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Oct 4
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.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Oct 4
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

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Oct 2
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)

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 27
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

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 24
Coming late to this but we're spoilt for choice! The Old Oligarch's pamphlet would be my suggestion; explicitly ideological.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 20
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.

Reposted by Carol Atack

reaktionbooks.bsky.social
Reaktion Books @reaktionbooks.bsky.social · Sep 20
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

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 19
Yes, let's! And there is more on pineapples - and the Decker family – in the catalogue for our 'Black Atlantic' exhibition, more recently.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 19
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

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 19
From a fabulous Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition back in 2019 (or thereabouts)!

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 17
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.

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 17
'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?

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 15
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

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 15
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

carolatack.bsky.social
Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Sep 13
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.

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Jonathan Portes, Ben H. Ansell , and 6 more

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social
Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · Sep 13
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

carolatack.bsky.social
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!