<p>In <em>The Ancient City</em> Fustel de Coulanges hands us the skeleton key unlocking classical civilization&mdash;the Indo-European domestic cult&mdash;showing this archaic religion to be the engine behind the rise and fall of the classical world.<br /><br><br /><br>In his foreword Dennis Bouvard views <em>The Ancient City</em> through the lens of generative anthropology pointing the way to a post-liberal understanding of our own social order informed by the imperative order described by Fustel.</p>