A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture

click here for more details, find new or used items	Sarah B. Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts Our price £20.89 (£22.99) New from £12.00 Used from £12.00 Pages: 384 (Paperback) ISBN: 0195156811 Pub: OUP USA Pub date: 2004-02-12 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1851

Reader Reviews:

The Greeks, Minos to Alexander, In under 400 pages. (0/0 people found this helpful)

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.

a dull read (3/7 people found this helpful)

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.

The hiStory of Ancient Greece (5/7 people found this helpful)

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 Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Cu (3/15 people found this helpful)

I wonder if this and Pliny's letters are best sellers merely because they are both set books for the Open University's newly presented course A219 Exploring the Classical World?
No this is unworthy, as both are in their own way readable & interesting.
Perhaps more insights as the couse progresses?
JH.

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