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BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES REND US 417 view of Sparta hinges upon it "The histor y of Sparta, it is not too much to say, is fundam entally the history of the cla ss strugg le betwe en the Spar tans and the Helots" (13) . Comparative ethnography, to which he declar es his co mmitment (24) , may contribute valuable insights, though in my view com parisons between helots and slaves in more recent socie ties (176- 177 and further in the Crux article cited there) sho uld be made with much grea ter restraint, given that the basic di fferences of race, language and domicile are so wide. Instead, compariso n with "cas te" or certain serf-ow ning socie ties hac;more to offer (in the latter co nnection note now P. Kolchin, Unfree Labor: American Slave ry and Russian Serfdom [Harvard 1987]). Reservations about the organi zation of Cartl edge's book should not take away from a very positi ve estimate of its ove rall content. Th ough Agesilaos ma y demand perseveran ce, it ranges widely, stirs controversy and challenges existing view s in a mo st productiv e way. Fo r the spec ialist, the nature of the topi c perhaps robs it at times of the freshness to be found in Sparta and Lakonia . But it must become required reading for anyone with a serious interest in Sparta or fourth -century Gre ece, and it whets the app etite for the projected sequel on Helleni stic and Roman Sparta. McMASTER UNIVERSITY RICHARD l .A . TA LBERT A. KEAV ENEY. Rome and the Unification of Italy. Bcck cnharn, Kent: Croo m Helm , 1987. pp . 231. Cloth, £25, 0-7099 -3 121-2. Lc livre de Keav eney est avant LOut unc mise au point historiographi que sur lc probl crne italien, dcpui s son originc jusqu'a sa liquid ation dans lcs annccs qu i ont suivi la gucrrc sociale. Et, de ce fait, I'auteur rclcvc un dcfi de taillc, car ce sujc t doit tcnir compte d'unc probl cmatiquc de plus en plu s div crsificc par la recherche. Citon s d'abord lc problcrnc de I'octroi de la civi tas, dont l'ctud c ne peut s'cba uchcr qu 'a partir de l'ouvragc dcsorm ais c1assique d' A.N. Sherwin Whit e, Roman Citizenship (2e cd. Oxford 1973); puis la question de I'occup ation du sol ct de l'organi sation de l'Italic, abo rdcc rcccmm cnt par E.T. Salm on, The Makin g of Roman Italy (Londres 1982). On pcnsc cga lcme nt aux com plcxitcs de la legislati on agrairc, ainsi qu'au processus de rehabilitation dont a pu profitcr Sylla ces dcrni ercs ann ccs, grace aux travau x de F. Hinard et de Keaveney luirncrnc . Et il rcste toujour s lc problcrnc de l'impcrialismc OUtant d'

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