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hwittenberg's review against another edition
4.0
This book was fascinating to read, and I loved how she picked 10 characteristics that take us through history to define and analyze Ancient Greek history and culture. It was very insightful, and her talking points all seemed highly informed and backed up by decades of research and clear understanding of the ancient world.
I also really enjoyed seeing the religious perspective, as it’s something I haven’t looked too far into before. It was interesting to see how the different Greek cities worshipped so differently yet so similarly, and how the gods that were picked as chief deities informed their identity and way of life. Also, the fact that so much of the book focuses on language and how the Greeks used their intellectual pursuits to drive progress was great, I loved the linguistic aspect that runs throughout the book.
Very fun read!!
I also really enjoyed seeing the religious perspective, as it’s something I haven’t looked too far into before. It was interesting to see how the different Greek cities worshipped so differently yet so similarly, and how the gods that were picked as chief deities informed their identity and way of life. Also, the fact that so much of the book focuses on language and how the Greeks used their intellectual pursuits to drive progress was great, I loved the linguistic aspect that runs throughout the book.
Very fun read!!
jasonfurman's review against another edition
4.0
A fantastic one volume history of Ancient Greece, exactly what I was looking for. It covers the Mycenean period through the height of Periclean Athens and then Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic period, the relationship of the Greeks to the Romans and the relationship of the Greeks to the Christians. Edith Hall passionately argues for the uniqueness and importance of Ancient Greek civilization in helping to create what we have today, rebutting claims that this is somehow arbitrarily Eurocentric or an excuse for white supremacy. At the same time, she pays particular attention to women, slavery, Greek atrocities, and so does not herself use Ancient Greece in the way some conservative scholars do. The book itself traverses political history, cultural history, intellectual history, and more, with particularly sensitive and nuanced discussions of the development of ideas. At the center of all of this is her argument that a combination ten characteristics made the Greeks unique including seafaring, skepticism of authority, openness to ideas, love of pleasure, and more. These traits, she argues, lasted more than a thousand years and each of her chapters illustrates one of them in the context of a particular time and place.
Note, I did a combination of listening to the Audible recording and reading the book.
Note, I did a combination of listening to the Audible recording and reading the book.
socraticgadfly's review against another edition
1.0
This book looked interesting on the shelves; I thought that, if nothing else, I might learn one or two things, at least, about post-Mycenean, pre-classical Greece, and, since the author is a philosophy prof, get her particular take on the ground zero of western philosophy.
Unfortunately, whopper errors at the start and end of the book mar any good content in the middle.
First, near the start, Hall talks about how small Greece is, at 25,000 square miles, smaller than Portugal or Scotland.
Er, WRONG! It's 50,000 square miles and bigger than both. With that error occurring in the first dozen pages, my skeptical antennae were up for the rest of the book.
It's much worse at the end, where a mix of errors and unsupported presuppositions are horrendous.
First, she claims that there were 110,000 Christians in the year 200 CE. First, we don't know the exact number of Xns. Second, to the degree we have guesstimates, we don't know how many of them were inside the Roman empire.
Next, she claims the gospel of Mark was written @ 61 CE. Uhh, most New Testament scholars would date it about 5 years later. I think it could have been written as late as 70-71, depending on the provenance of its origin.
Finally, she repeats the old secularist canard, as did Carl Sagan, that the death of Hypatia at the hands of Christians was what led to the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.
Actually, the library was first sacked, if not necessarily destroyed, during the reign of Emperor Aurelian a century earlier, in battle that had nothing to do with Christians. Its final destruction may not have happened until the Muslim invasion of Egypt nearly two centuries after Hypatia.
Besides the errors of fact, some of Hall's interpretations of classical Greece are spotty. Yes, the Greeks were great seafarers, by and large. But did every city-state focus on the sea that much? No. Sparta didn't, certainly. North of Athens, on the mainland, areas like Thessaly certainly didn't.
Also, on the central conundrum of (some parts of) ancient Greece, that of personal liberty and in (yet smaller) places, that of democracy, vs. the ubiquity of slavery, Hall simply doesn't wrestle with the conundrum that much. Without expecting classical Attica to abhor slavery as much as us, and with Stoics like Epictetus even detaching from their own slavery, nonetheless, it was a conundrum of sorts even back then. The Epicurean brotherhood of man attests to that.
Beyond that, classical-era Greece seems too much filtered through the lens of Athens/Ionia on one hand, and Sparta on the other. I mentioned Thessaly above. What about Corinth? Or the borderlands of the northwest? The lens should have a wider angle.
So, look for some other relatively new book for an introductory overview of ancient Greece.
Unfortunately, whopper errors at the start and end of the book mar any good content in the middle.
First, near the start, Hall talks about how small Greece is, at 25,000 square miles, smaller than Portugal or Scotland.
Er, WRONG! It's 50,000 square miles and bigger than both. With that error occurring in the first dozen pages, my skeptical antennae were up for the rest of the book.
It's much worse at the end, where a mix of errors and unsupported presuppositions are horrendous.
First, she claims that there were 110,000 Christians in the year 200 CE. First, we don't know the exact number of Xns. Second, to the degree we have guesstimates, we don't know how many of them were inside the Roman empire.
Next, she claims the gospel of Mark was written @ 61 CE. Uhh, most New Testament scholars would date it about 5 years later. I think it could have been written as late as 70-71, depending on the provenance of its origin.
Finally, she repeats the old secularist canard, as did Carl Sagan, that the death of Hypatia at the hands of Christians was what led to the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.
Actually, the library was first sacked, if not necessarily destroyed, during the reign of Emperor Aurelian a century earlier, in battle that had nothing to do with Christians. Its final destruction may not have happened until the Muslim invasion of Egypt nearly two centuries after Hypatia.
Besides the errors of fact, some of Hall's interpretations of classical Greece are spotty. Yes, the Greeks were great seafarers, by and large. But did every city-state focus on the sea that much? No. Sparta didn't, certainly. North of Athens, on the mainland, areas like Thessaly certainly didn't.
Also, on the central conundrum of (some parts of) ancient Greece, that of personal liberty and in (yet smaller) places, that of democracy, vs. the ubiquity of slavery, Hall simply doesn't wrestle with the conundrum that much. Without expecting classical Attica to abhor slavery as much as us, and with Stoics like Epictetus even detaching from their own slavery, nonetheless, it was a conundrum of sorts even back then. The Epicurean brotherhood of man attests to that.
Beyond that, classical-era Greece seems too much filtered through the lens of Athens/Ionia on one hand, and Sparta on the other. I mentioned Thessaly above. What about Corinth? Or the borderlands of the northwest? The lens should have a wider angle.
So, look for some other relatively new book for an introductory overview of ancient Greece.
emjgr's review against another edition
I was reading it for a class and we didn’t need to finish it. It was very dense
albcorp's review against another edition
5.0
A passionate introduction. While the names flew past at a rate I could not always keep pace with, I found the arrangement of material left me with a surprisingly strong image of the whole. I am tempted to go back through the archive of the In Our Time podcast to revisit key moments with this new perspective, or even to embark on a new program of further classics
anthrosercher's review against another edition
5.0
So I went backward. I read what books on the ancient world I could find, as they there what I had. I learned but it was disjointed and understanding came in fits and starts.
Then I read this book.
The tone and voice is perfect. It is not and does not claim to be the ultimate book on the subject. It's a very good and effective introduction. It's written well and introduces what you need to know to continue study.
More over it sets you up for further study. The opening information includes two detailed maps and a timeline for reference. At the end each chapter has it's own list of references to pick up if a topic caught your eye and you want to know more.
But the brilliance that most impressed me is the habit of connecting and explaining events and populations. This is a vibrant, interactive and dynamic world. It's alive and active and passionate. And she is somehow able to bring that off the page.
This is how an introduction book is written.
Then I read this book.
The tone and voice is perfect. It is not and does not claim to be the ultimate book on the subject. It's a very good and effective introduction. It's written well and introduces what you need to know to continue study.
More over it sets you up for further study. The opening information includes two detailed maps and a timeline for reference. At the end each chapter has it's own list of references to pick up if a topic caught your eye and you want to know more.
But the brilliance that most impressed me is the habit of connecting and explaining events and populations. This is a vibrant, interactive and dynamic world. It's alive and active and passionate. And she is somehow able to bring that off the page.
This is how an introduction book is written.