We have seen how important that divide is in American politics. It seems also to have been powerful in the recent French presidential election, with urban voters tending to support Macron, and rural ones more likely to rally behind Le Pen.
With superb timing Charles Nathan makes the case that this divide was also present -and powerful – in Athens of the fifth century BCE. His article is in the American Political Science Review:
[PDF] The Urban/Rural Divide in Athenian Political Thought I am still not sure why this divide has such political significance. Perhaps readers will comment, I can only add one observation: in 21st century America the urban / rural divide seems no longer between agricultural and commercial workers. That was brought home to me when we lived in an old farm in rural North Carolina. The adjoining 100 acres or so were the only truly agricultural land in the immediate area. They were farmed by a ,man who lived some distance away, Our closer neighbors were mostly people who had grown up on or near this land but no longer farmed it. They worked in businesses, governmental agencies, medical centers, or were retired. In addition, there were a few of us expatriates, “urban cosmopolitans,” some would say, who liked rural living.
I mention this because it suggests that a myth so important in the framing of American governance no longer applies. Rural America is no longer primarily agricultural, and the myth of the citizen farmer turned soldier, then into a political leader no longer works in our society. No more Cincinnatus! And maybe nothing to re-place him - except perhaps nostalgia.
With superb timing Charles Nathan makes the case that this divide was also present -and powerful – in Athens of the fifth century BCE. His article is in the American Political Science Review:
[PDF] The Urban/Rural Divide in Athenian Political Thought I am still not sure why this divide has such political significance. Perhaps readers will comment, I can only add one observation: in 21st century America the urban / rural divide seems no longer between agricultural and commercial workers. That was brought home to me when we lived in an old farm in rural North Carolina. The adjoining 100 acres or so were the only truly agricultural land in the immediate area. They were farmed by a ,man who lived some distance away, Our closer neighbors were mostly people who had grown up on or near this land but no longer farmed it. They worked in businesses, governmental agencies, medical centers, or were retired. In addition, there were a few of us expatriates, “urban cosmopolitans,” some would say, who liked rural living.
I mention this because it suggests that a myth so important in the framing of American governance no longer applies. Rural America is no longer primarily agricultural, and the myth of the citizen farmer turned soldier, then into a political leader no longer works in our society. No more Cincinnatus! And maybe nothing to re-place him - except perhaps nostalgia.