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Title: Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean by Charles Freeman, Oswyn Murray ISBN: 0-19-926364-7 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: March, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good but lacking coherence
Comment: This book covers Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in three multi-chapter sections and covers the Ancient Near East, the Hellenistic world after Alexander, and Europian "barbarians" in single chapters. The main topics--Egypt, Greece, and Rome--are, I think, treated quite separately, so there is no great advantage besides convenience to grouping them in one book.
I believe that the Ancient Near East--particularly the Persians and Jews--should have been a primary focus, and probably Egypt should not have. The Persian Wars and the rise of Christianity had huge impacts on Rome and Greece, and much of Greek culture was derived from Eastern culture. Ancient Eqypt was a unique and remarkable civilization but it was relatively isolated, and certainly it is possible to understand Greece and Rome without understanding Egypt.
The basic flaw of this book is that the chapters aren't tied together and that it has no overarching vision. For example, a theme like the similarities between the Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religions because of assimilation would have been very interesting and enlightening I think, but there is little of it.
The writing is a bit prosaic, though in general this book is written well. You can learn a lot from this book, but it is difficult to remember it all since it is too much a compendium of facts and too little a coherent story.
Rating: 5
Summary: Superb history
Comment: This is a great book to get an integrated view of the ancient world. I looked at many different books before reading this one, having previously devoured a number of more specialized books about the ancient world over the years, but wanting something more in the way of an overall perspective and context. This book is great for that.
I was mainly interested in the sections covering pre-Classical Period Greece, from 1500 down to the Golden Age (about 500 BC), but the other areas of coverage are superb also. Freeman also has an especially nice touch and fluency with the Greek history, and I wasn't surprised to find a separate book on Greek history by him next to this one on the bookshelf. There were also several gaps in my historical knowledge that this book plugged. For example, his section on the Etruscans, which I only had very fragmentary and superficial knowledge of, was also excellent.
The book benefits from much recent scholarship, and the author points out in the introduction that one of the main differences between a modern book on ancient history and older ones is the degree to which ancient civilizations like Greece can be placed much more securely in the context of their times, showing them not as isolated cultural entities, but as arising from the interplay of much more cosmopolitan influences as they interacted with, and were influenced by, their contacts, peaceable or otherwise, with neighboring or competing cultures. This is another one of the great scholarly strengths of the book.
I also found the author's deft touch and writing style a big plus, and although by necessity this is not a short book, it rarely got tedious or boring. That is notable by itself in a work of this size and nature. Overall, it counts as the best overall book on the history of the ancient world, and one of the most consistently interesting history books, I've ever read.
Rating: 5
Summary: A superb introduction to the history of the period
Comment: If you are constantly confused by this period of history, this is the book for you. It puts into context, the whole shape of the era. It makes you realise that someone like Cleopatra is closer to our time than the beginnings of Egyptian history. I have read the whole book through and it is a superb narrative. This is no mean feat, for if you where to write a history of the United States from Columbus to the present, it would be close to a third of the time that he covers. You can start to see the relationship between the writers of the period and the politicians. You can begin to way each period is interlocked with the next. But more than that, you can look up any period and be given a succint description to help you through.
My only regret was that this book was not published years earlier. I cannot recommend a book more highly.
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Title: The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World by Charles Freeman ISBN: 014029323X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Closing of the Western Mind : The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman ISBN: 140004085X Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford Illustrated Histories) by Ian Shaw ISBN: 0192802933 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale Nota Bene) by Thomas R. Martin ISBN: 0300084935 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan ISBN: 0670032115 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 08 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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