Hartvig Frisch (1893-1950) var en provokerende socialistisk politiker. Samtidig var han videnskabsmand og 1941-1948 professor i klassisk filologi ved Københavns Universitet.

I denne bog søger Anders Holm Rasmussen at udrede baggrunden for Frischs historiesyn og politiske holdning: Udgangspunktet er at filologens tolkninger af Thukydid, Pseudo-Xenofon (Den Gamle Oligark) og Platon er centrale for forståelsen af historikeren og politikeren Hartvig Frisch.

English
Hartvig Frisch (1893-1950) was a provocative socialist politician. At the same time he was a scholar and from 1941 to 1948 a professor in Classical Philology at the University of Copenhagen.

In this book, Anders Holm Rasmussen endeavours to give an account of the background for Frisch's outlook on history and his political attitude: He takes as his point of departure that the interpretations of Thukydid, Pseudo-Xenofon (the Old Oligarch) and Plato by the philologist are central to the understanding of the historian and the politician Hartvig Frisch.