An absolutely fantastic overview of ancient Greece

books:


	• Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale Nota Bene) Thomas R. Martin Yale University Press, 2000 - 276 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

As good as it gets for general history

This is the book that aroused my interest in ancient Greek history. I've read a lot of general histories, and most are tough to endure. Not this one. Filled with helpful chronolgical charts, maps, organized headings, and clear and succinct prose -- this book conveys the ancient Greek experience in a little over 200 pages.

Trust me, if you want to begin your study of the ancient Greeks (or reinforce and give context to what you already know about the Greeks) read this book.

An absolutely fantastic overview of ancient Greece

Thomas Martin's book "Ancient Greece" is an absolutely fantastic book if you're interested in getting an overview of ancient Greece, how it started and progressed and why people are interested in studying about it. At just over 200 pages of text, Martin somehow manages to cover a huge amount of information, yet keep it extremely interesting. The only shortcoming is that in my paperback edition the pictures are all crummy black and white and grainy. Additionally, all the images are grouped together, so the images aren't there when you read the associated section in the text.

I'm not sure where you are coming from, but I had just read the Odyssey and the Iliad and wanted an overview in order to understand these texts better as well as snoop around for other texts to read. Mission accomplished, Herodotus' "Histories" and then Hesiod's "Works and Days", staying clear of Thucydides because it just seems too difficult to read.

Included in the text, as the book begins, is a description of the geographic characteristics of Greece and how that led to the development of individual, strong Greek city-states. Additionally, we hear about the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. The Hellenistic period, which occurs after Alexander the Great unified much of the old Persian Empire (and probably more) with the Greek "homeland" seems like it gets short shrift compared with the Classical or Golden eras, though you get just enough information to a) get excited about those areas and b) get leads for other areas to investigate.

for more information click here

You can't do much better than this.

There are certainly no shortage of history books dealing with the Greeks but Professor Martin's book deserves special notice. He knows just the right balance of detail and readability that actually makes reading history compelling and engrossing. In short, the author gets to the point faster and better than any other author of the subject that I've read and this makes the experience of reading the book through much less difficult than one might expect for a history text. Whenever I have a question about ancient Greek history this is the text I pick up first. A superb book - Highly recommended.

for more information click here

best short, complete book on ancient Greece

If you don't know much about ancient Greek history or culture, this is the best short book I know of. On every page, in every sentence, the author gets straight to the point, with no fancy obfuscations, assuming no prior knowledge. I've never seen a better organized history of ancient Greece. Besides that, I strongly approve of the map selection and the timelines. He gives just enough depth to be a solid introduction--just a little bit more than "what you're supposed to know."

Some teachers I know prefer a book titled "Ancient Greece" written by a team of authors led by Sarah Pomeroy. It has just a bit more depth than this book, but it isn't nearly as well written. It seems that they wanted it to be easily comprehensible, but I'm not sure they succeeded. It does have the advantage of a little more depth, but if you're reading for pleasure, I recommend this one rather than that one.

It is, though, only an introduction; that's the obvious downside of being short. You might want more information about the culture: more excerpts from the poets, the thoughts of the philosophers described in more detail, more plates (or plates in color) about the art. Actually the book is amply illustrated in black and white. But of course a book dedicated to Greek culture would have better information on any of these aspects, and that would be a book worth reading. This one serves only as an introduction. I strongly recommend reading the Norton Critical Editions of the Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod, a couple famous tragedies (in my opinion, Euripides' Medea is the one to read first), and a few of Plato's more famous dialogues. THAT is an introduction; but if that's the kind of thing you intend to do, this book will be a great place to start.

On the historical/political/social matters, this book is again a great introduction, but only an introduction. If you want more detailed information, especially a look at the reasons historians believe such and such happened, I very strongly recommend John V. A. Fine's "The Ancient Greeks," one of the very best history books I've ever read. Of course it's a lot longer, but it's worth it. Once again, if you're reading for pleasure, I recommend this one first, and then Fine's book, which is a bit harder to follow.

If you want to read about Greek religion, I would once again start here; but then you should read the classic, Walter Burkert's book, and follow it up with Jan Bremmer's book, both titled "Greek Religion."

Of course, why not a little cheerleading for learning about ancient Greece? Since the Renaissance and even more since the Victorian era, anyone in the West who would call themselves educated has had to have basic knowledge of ancient Greece. They were certainly very influential on Western culture, and via Bactria even had some considerable influence on East Asia.

I've found that Greek history somehow arouses more curiousity in students than modern European or American history. I think it's because of the nature of the ancient Greeks themselves, because they reflected on human nature via their own history, so as we study ancient Greece, we get to reflect on the nature of power, why governments take forms such as aristocracies or democracies or monarchies, why wars are won or lost, why empires rise and fall, how much blood and misery flow through history, and so on. Students don't merely have to memorize lists of events and prepared ideas, but they get to reflect about life, why the world is the way it is, for themselves. And that is what most people, young or old, are all about.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

hot