New Swedish Books, Spring 2018 1
35 Spring 2018 Tomas Lappalainen (b. 1958) The Wo
rld’s First Citizens Publisher Lind & Co www.lindco.se Rights Lind & Co info@lindco.se Selected Works Italien 1999 Camorra. En bok om maffian i Neapel 2007 ’Ndrangheta. En bok om maffian i Kalabrien 2010 The World’s First Citizens “What are states if not bandit gangs on a large scale and what are bandit gangs if not small states?” St Augustine once said. In his book The World’s First Citizens, the author and journalist Tomas Lappalainen turns his attention to the Ancient Greek state, using his expertise on the Italian mafia, a subject on which he has written several books. It’s an exciting and original tale in which daily life is as important a source as Homer. The reader is taken along on the long journey from honour and clan culture to the city-state of (male) citizens. In fact, Lappalainen shows, the Greeks first attempted their new social model in their colonies. To speak in film terminology: this is a complex yet entertaining “prequel” to the often idealised picture of Greece as the birthplace of democracy and common sense. Photo: Eva Lindblad