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Review
Cartledge's success lies in his ability to negotiate a path between similarity and difference; with proper scholarly detachment, he stresses how different the Greeks were; with an eye to broader historical trajectories, he reflects on the grounds for their continuing fascination. (Tim Rood, Times Literary Supplement )
A rare work, a compelling historical narrative. (Peter Stothard, Wall Street Journal )
Thoroughly stimulating book. (Tom Holland, BBC History )
Cartledge is master of his subject. (Peter Jones, Literary Review )
Paul Cartledge... once again shows why he is the surest and most engaging guide to the ancient world. (Justin Marozzi, Evening Standard )
A tremendously readable tour d'horizon that goes far beyond Athens and Sparta to explore the roots of Greek civilization. (Justin Marozzi, Evening Standard )
There are many pleasures to be had along Cartledge's mind-broadening route through time and space. (Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian )
A rare work, a compelling historical narrative. (Peter Stothard, Wall Street Journal )
Thoroughly stimulating book. (Tom Holland, BBC History )
Cartledge is master of his subject. (Peter Jones, Literary Review )
Paul Cartledge... once again shows why he is the surest and most engaging guide to the ancient world. (Justin Marozzi, Evening Standard )
A tremendously readable tour d'horizon that goes far beyond Athens and Sparta to explore the roots of Greek civilization. (Justin Marozzi, Evening Standard )
There are many pleasures to be had along Cartledge's mind-broadening route through time and space. (Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian )
Product Description
The contribution of the Ancient Greeks to modern western culture is incalculable. In the worlds of art, architecture, myth, literature, and philosophy, the world we live in would be unrecognizably different without the formative influence of Ancient Greek models. Ancient Greek civilization was defined by the city - in Greek, the polis, from which we derive 'politics'. It is above all this feature of Greek civilization that has formed its most enduring legacy, spawning such key terms as aristocracy, oligarchy, tyranny and - last but by no means least - democracy. This highly stimulating introduction to Ancient Greece takes the polis as its starting point. Paul Cartledge uses the history of eleven major Greek cities to illuminate the most important and informative themes in Ancient Greek history, from the first documented use of the Greek language around 1400 BCE, through the glories of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, to the foundation of the Byzantine empire in around CE 330. Covering everything from politics, trade, and travel to slavery, gender, religion, and philosophy, it provides the ideal concise introduction to the history and culture of this remarkable civilization that helped give birth to the world as we know it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The signature of a good history book is to be both scholarly and readable. I think this hits the spot. Here is a man clearly at home with his material and writes with clarity and authority as well as a little dose of fun from time to time. He also de mystifies some terminology for the beginner. This is probably not a book for the expert but as an intoduction to Ancient Greece it is a very good start. I also like to read a story covering a wide expanse of time with a theme. The theme here is cities. Themes help to bind a story together and it works in this case. I quickly compared other books covering similar periods and it stands up very well. It is, however, disapointingly short, disapointing becaue he writes well, something not every historian is good at. Very readable.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A most interesting and absorbing sketch of Greek history, as seen through the perspective of the cities chosen for specific treatment. This is a deceptive volume : thin in terms of pages, but certainly not in terms of its content.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I got this book a while ago. I read it, liked it, adn have turned to it again as a starting point (but not a reference) when wanting to know more about one of the cities that it mentions. This book is however somewhat hard to rate.
I found the concept great and rather original: summarize the history of Greece (about twlve centuties of it) through the presentation and history of 11 cities (not all of which can be termed as "greek"). However, the execution was rather problematic and the author, having been limited to less than 200 pages, was always going to face a major problem when dealing with so much content in so little space.
To some, this book might seem to be too little and sometimes superficial because a whole book (or several, bearing in mind what Cartledge himself has done for Sparta) could probably have been written for each city. For others, this might be too much, not because of the size, but because the author mixes up a high level summary with quite a lot of details and some explanations that you might not expect to find in such a small book. This problem has, to some extent, already been alluded to by another reviewer when mentioning that the target audience seemed to be undefined. I am not quite sure about that because the book, given its size, clearly does not attempt to be comprehensive and, because it is very accessible, well written, easy to read and portable, clearly seems to have been targeted at the general reader.
If I am correct in my assumption, then it is worth four stars. I am, however, among the ones who would have wanted to learn more (much more!) on each of the cities and their specifics so I hesitated and almost rated it three stars. Having said that, the book does include a lot of useful information, despite it small size, such as explaining how Sparta could afford to (and had to, to a large extent) transform itself into a militaristic state permanently geared for war and how this was both its main strength and its main weakness.
A very interesting and easy read which I have been going through, once again, when going to work and during my luchtime. I hope that you will also enjoy it, despite its problems...
I found the concept great and rather original: summarize the history of Greece (about twlve centuties of it) through the presentation and history of 11 cities (not all of which can be termed as "greek"). However, the execution was rather problematic and the author, having been limited to less than 200 pages, was always going to face a major problem when dealing with so much content in so little space.
To some, this book might seem to be too little and sometimes superficial because a whole book (or several, bearing in mind what Cartledge himself has done for Sparta) could probably have been written for each city. For others, this might be too much, not because of the size, but because the author mixes up a high level summary with quite a lot of details and some explanations that you might not expect to find in such a small book. This problem has, to some extent, already been alluded to by another reviewer when mentioning that the target audience seemed to be undefined. I am not quite sure about that because the book, given its size, clearly does not attempt to be comprehensive and, because it is very accessible, well written, easy to read and portable, clearly seems to have been targeted at the general reader.
If I am correct in my assumption, then it is worth four stars. I am, however, among the ones who would have wanted to learn more (much more!) on each of the cities and their specifics so I hesitated and almost rated it three stars. Having said that, the book does include a lot of useful information, despite it small size, such as explaining how Sparta could afford to (and had to, to a large extent) transform itself into a militaristic state permanently geared for war and how this was both its main strength and its main weakness.
A very interesting and easy read which I have been going through, once again, when going to work and during my luchtime. I hope that you will also enjoy it, despite its problems...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A knowlegeable author and an intriguing title - so why do I give it...
This seemed just the book for me to refresh what I have learnt about Ancient Greece and to fill in interesting (or embarrassing) gaps, from an acknowledged expert. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Sheila York
Disappointing
I picked this book after reading Robin Lane Fox's "Classical World" thinking that, as it's short and compact, it would allow me to keep my knowledge of Greek civilisation somewhat... Read more
Published 21 months ago by E. Dunphy
irritating
I have only reached chapter one (Knossos) and already I am irritated. First of all by his statement that Crete is the third-largest island in the Mediterranean. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2010 by Michael Scuffil
not the best of Cartledge's books
I have read Paul Cartledge's books in the past, including: The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others and The Spartans: An epic history. Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2009 by Katerina
Essential reading ...
A conspectus for the classical studies bookshelf, the size of 'Ancient Greece: a History in Eleven Cities' gives the lie to its contents: its concise succinctness makes it a... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2009 by Jane-Anne Shaw, MA
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