Malcolm McGregor draws on a life-time of scholarship to write a comprehensive account of the most celebrated period in classical Greek history -- 'The Golden Age' -- in which military and political advances of the Athenians coincided with their greatest achievements in art, literature, philosophy, and social theory. McGregor explains how democracy was nurtured in Athens and how effective government was achieved by a balance of open public debate and the role of individual decisive statesmen such as Pericles. This genuinely democratic government brought peace and prosperity to the Athenians and their allies and, as McGregor asserts, contributed to the extraordinary cultural ascendancy of fifth-century Greece.