Politics & Power Quote by Michael I. Rostovtzeff

Rostovtzeff is taking aim at an old prestige economy in his own profession: for a long time, history got to count as “serious” only when it stayed close to the state. The line is deceptively mild, but the jab is clear. Political crises, wars, and “great generals” aren’t just topics; they’re a hierarchy of attention that treats everyone else as background noise. By naming the canon so plainly, he exposes how narrow it is - and how much it flatters the people who already had the power to leave records.

The phrasing matters. “Confined” suggests not a neutral choice but a constraint, almost a captivity of imagination. “Most important crises” reads like a quote from the old guard’s internal memo: importance defined by what threatens rulers, borders, and dynasties, not by what reshapes daily life. The emphasis on narrative also signals a critique of storytelling conventions: the clean arc of campaigns and leaders is easier to tell, easier to teach, and easier to mythologize than the slow violence of taxation, labor, migration, disease, and economic change.

Context sharpens the intent. Writing in the early 20th century, amid revolutions, world war, and mass politics, Rostovtzeff watched the “stage directions” of history change. His own work on the ancient world leaned into social and economic structures, arguing that empires rise and fall through class tensions, commerce, and cultural mixing, not just battlefield genius. The subtext is an invitation - and a provocation: if history keeps worshipping generals, it will keep misunderstanding why societies actually break.