Proporcionado por el ed.: "Investment in the study of the distant past by institutions of higher education, it seems, is becoming harder to justify. Classics programs in the U.S. and even in Europe are dwindling in number. Are classics and ancient history doomed? In this manifesto, ancient historian Walter Scheidel aims to show that our engagement with early cultures is being held back by stifling and even unethical traditions that have become fossilized over time and that are increasingly difficult to uphold in a diverse, interconnected, and global world. A new vision for what ancient history is, what it can be, and why it matters is needed. His goal is to identify changes that promote intellectual renewal as well as inclusion, and that are feasible and sustainable across different national traditions. Scheidel develops this vision by redefining "ancient history" not merely as some distant past, but as a critical phase of transformative and foundational development that created everything that shapes the world we inhabit today. This development, he argues, was a global process that not only laid the foundations of later civilizations but also set humanity on a track from which it is difficult to depart. However, it is one which we must understand better to know where we might be headed. In doing so, he explains why the way we have been studying our shared foundational history has failed to do justice to its enduring significance. Its current practices are deeply rooted in ideals that emerged in the late eighteenth century, and while these may have made sense within the intellectual and political context of their time, they have long since outlived their usefulness. Shackled by institutional inertia, the study of ancient cultures is in dire need of yet another reorientation. Scheidel argues that it is necessary to liberate Greek and Roman history and archaeology from its embrace by classics in order to embed these pursuits in the context of a foundational history that is truly global in scope".