Product Description

Comprehensive and balanced, this condensed version of the authors' highly successful book (Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, OUP, 1998) introduces the history and civilization of ancient Greece in all its complexity and variety. It covers the entire period from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Era, integrating the most recent research in archaeology, comparative anthropology, and social history with traditional yet lively coverage of political, military, and diplomatic history. Featuring a wealth of illustrations, this thoughtful and sophisticated volume is accessible to readers with little or no knowledge of Greece.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56513 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
... the span of history is once again extremely generous, from the Stone Age to the Battle of Actium. Few histories of Greece have such a beginning and such an end, and even fewer incorporate the most recent research in archaeology, comparative anthropology, and social history. (Scholia Reviews )

... this more concise version introduces the history and civilisation of ancient Greece in all its complexity and variety and steers us away from monolithic, Grotean interpretations towards multiple authorship stressing social and cultural history. (Scholia Reviews )

Customer Reviews

The Greeks, Minos to Alexander, In under 400 pages.
It is called a 'brief history' but it is surprisingly in-depth. This book in truth strikes a nice equilibrium between the readable and scholarly. It manages to cover all of the clear-cut salient points in regards to Greek history, politics, arts, culture and science. It happens to do it in some degree of detail yet also manages to touch on the surrounding historiography while also including a bibliography for those wanting to explore further. You hear of the 'Dorian invasion' theory and Sparta in regards to Nazi Germany and Communism, yet this book does not wish to interpose its opinions; it merely provides the salient details, key debates and at the most comes to the most likely conclusion. This is what you need from both a text book and an introduction.

The narrative begins in Neolithic prehistory and then proceeds through the Bronze age, Dark Ages, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic (c.6500BC-167 BC). Individual chapters are devoted to the city-states of Sparta, Athens and Macedonia; Interspersed within the chapters are segments on arts, literature, science and philosophy. To guide us along we get a timeline, a glossary, 16 maps and many black and white photos detailing the ancient world in all its finery. Extracts from key texts such as Homer, Thucydides and Sophocles are provided along the way. It is really quite thorough for a 'brief history'. Think of this book as an in-depth contents page for a website: you are provided with a readable summery but the links exist if you want to pursue further.

This on the surface seems a classic text-book affair and certainly I would recommend this for the class-room. It also however is a perfect summery for those wanting to begin exploring ancient-Greece on their own initiative.

The hiStory of Ancient Greece
Although this is a academic book for students and academic staff, the book is written to be accessible to amateur enthusiasts and members of the public with no prior knowledge to the subject matter aswell. The chapters are well defined, with good illustrations and easily readable facts and theories about Ancient Greece and the Aegean. A good way to learn the history and society of Ancient Greece, which is sometimes more complex in other text books. This can also sit on your shelf and you can pick it up and just flick to a specific or random chapter to read or research. A pleasure to read!

a dull read
Let's face it, this book is on the OU reading list, so you gotta have it, but lively reading it ain't. It's certainly packed with facts, but in making this history 'brief' the writers seem to have dispensed with any effort use a lively or accessible style. For the average reader who comes new to study of the ancient Greece, this book will be a struggle.