Abstract
Ethnicity emerged as an important issue in classical studies in the late 1990s. Now, we can add this volume, which represents the publication of the proceedings of the conference, "Ethnizität als Argument. Der Untergang des Peloponnesischen Bundes," held at the Westfälische Wilhems-Universität of Münster in 2003, to the growing number of publications that elucidate ethnicity in ancient Greece. As such, the contributors scrutinize expressions of ethnicity in the Peloponnese during the late fifth and early fourth centuries B.C.E. While I believe that this volume has much to offer scholars of the political history of ancient Greece, I have serious concerns with the overarching critical understanding of the concept of "ethnicity" throughout the volume. The main problem lies in the contributors' dependence on literary evidence and avoidance of archaeological materials and recent theoretical developments with regard to ethnicity, especially those located outside classics and classical archaeology. I will address these concerns after summarizing the main arguments of each contribution.