A Review of Seth Schwartz's latest

I just saw this positive review of Seth Schwartz's latest book, The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad, a condensation of his book, Imperialism and Jewish Society.  Imperialism and Jewish Society should be required reading of any scholar of ancient Judaism, ancient Christianity, and Roman history.

Dangerous Literature

Though not directly discussing the Bible or ancient texts more generally, there was a review article in the Chronicler of Higher education discussing "When Literature was Dangerous."  The example used there is James Joyce's Ulysses, which used to be banned in the U.S. and England until the 1930s.  In the U.S. today, however, when very little is actually censured, there appears to be very little dangers in reading and writing.  At the same time, when anything goes, does anything matter?  Individual institutions may issue a ban, but there is no force behind it like there used to be.  Whereas writers in other, more totalitarian states, often risk imprisonment and execution for their work.  Where nothing goes, does everything matter?

This, ultimately, raises a different issue than usually addressed in our dusty discussions of what something meant in antiquity or even how it has been received later.  It is not even limited to questions of cui bono? That is, who benefits from something being written.  The question is what's at stake?! And what has the writer risked?