| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A highly entertaining bluffer's guide to Greek culture, philosophy and politics." The Sunday Times "Higgins delivers digestible precis and peppy plot summaries... the appendices would make fine stocking-fillers in their own right - A love letter to ancient Greece" The Telegraph "With a marvellous display of knowledgeable enthusiasm and a keen talent for compression, (Higgins) shows just precisely why the Greeks matter" The Guardian "Higgins takes on classical Greek, covering politics, barbarians, love, epic and ethics, all done with panache and sly wit." Scotland on Sunday "It's All Greek to Me is so readable, with a directness and clarity that's enormously engaging. Every generation needs to rediscover the Greeks..." Philip Pullman
Product Description
With everything from Achilles' heel to Pythagoras' theorem, from Oedipus and his complex to Margaret Thatcher and Thucydides, this book aims to unlock the richness of the Greek world and show just how profoundly it has informed our own. Consider the way we think: about right and wrong, about the nature of beauty, goodness, and truth. What, in the end, it is to be a human being amid the immensity of the universe. All this, and more, we have learned from the ancient Greeks. They moulded the basic disciplines and genres in which we still organise thought: from poetry to drama, from politics to philosophy and history to medicine. Packed with useful cribs - history timelines; a who's who; a guide to the Greek gods; a map for those who struggle to know their Lemnos from their Lesbos - It's All Greek To Me is a bluffer's guide in one sense, that will give you a helping hand around Greek democracy, the Persian Wars, or the Parthenon. But it is much more than that; it is a book that aims to bring ancient Greece back into the mainstream of life - where it belongs.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Very well written and presented in compact form. It is an excellent refresher, or gap filler, for what one may not have learned at school! It gives all the basic material one needs to understand Greek mythology and the founding of the Greek and other European civilisations and the influence this has had on European history and our own present day thinking, language, arts and sciences. It offers further insight into this fascinating culture which can enhance much of what we see and read. It has also awoken my interest in Homer's epic poems and the history of the Trojan wars.
My only regret is that it wasn't available in my youth before I embarked on a life of study of my English mother tongue, literature, medicical and scinetific terminology and our wonderful heritage of works of art.
My only regret is that it wasn't available in my youth before I embarked on a life of study of my English mother tongue, literature, medicical and scinetific terminology and our wonderful heritage of works of art.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This work gives a rather breezily overview of the history of early to post-Classical Greece. The topics included range from Homer's works, Greek drama and how Greek thought might be responsible for Keanu Reeve's greatest film, the `Matrix'
The author's easily digestible writing style is aimed squarely at newcomers to the subject, she seems to try too hard to be "with it" with numerous vox pop references which will soon date. The spectre of PC correctness is also present, with the implication that the ancient Greeks were flawed in that they could not anticipate the rarefied standards of the 21 century in the matters of multiculturism and feminism.
So, I'd give this book a qualified recommendation as a starting point to other odysseys into the classical realms.
The author's easily digestible writing style is aimed squarely at newcomers to the subject, she seems to try too hard to be "with it" with numerous vox pop references which will soon date. The spectre of PC correctness is also present, with the implication that the ancient Greeks were flawed in that they could not anticipate the rarefied standards of the 21 century in the matters of multiculturism and feminism.
So, I'd give this book a qualified recommendation as a starting point to other odysseys into the classical realms.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm interested in classical civilisations and in particular the Greeks and the Romans, so I came at this book with the best of intentions. However, in truth, although it's okay, this offering is not particularly informative or gripping. There's little new here by way of extrapolating Ancient Greek influence into the modern world. My main gripe, though, is that the author leans far too heavily on Homer and his influence. In fact, some of the book is simply regurgitated description of the main plots and action from his two key works.
Overall, although useful at times, I couldn't help but thinking that this book was perhaps something of a missed opportunity.
Overall, although useful at times, I couldn't help but thinking that this book was perhaps something of a missed opportunity.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
