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Title: Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B. C.: A Historical Biography by Peter Green ISBN: 0-520-07166-2 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: October, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.44 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (47 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not for the faint of history
Comment: I bought this book about 15 years ago when my 7th grade teacher offered a lot of extra credit for it. I didn't read it then, and now I understand why he chose it. His thinking must have been that any 7th grader who could complete this book must be a genius, and he was prepared to reap the scholastic benefits of making this discovery.
I have picked this book up several times in the last 15 years in an attempt to finish it, or to leave it casually on my nightstand when I wanted to impress someone. Unfortunately, I believe my main problem with trying to finish this novel is that I'm just not smart enough.
"Alexander of Macedon" is a very detailed account of the life of Alexander the Great, and to a lesser extent, his father, Philip. If you've ever wanted to know everything there is about Alexander, this is the book for you, and is probably the most exhaustive text available. It is thoroughly well researched and is loaded with sources. It is evident Greene spent his time putting it together. I would not recommend this book to anyone who simply wants an enjoyable biography of the man however. This book is an incredibly difficult read. New battles and people are mentioned every other paragraph, and it takes at least 100 pages just to get into anything interesting. I was mind-numbingly bored out of my skull for the first 50 pages and was incredibly confused before Greene even got to talking about Phillip.
I imagine once the movie comes out next year, many will be looking to expand their knowledge on Alexander and learn more about him. As I said, unless you are really obsessed with the man and want to know every detail of his life, I wi=ould look for a simpler read. This book is not written for a general audience and any exciting facts or stories about Alexander are buried under mounds and mounds of historical data.
Rating: 5
Summary: Have sword and spear, will travel
Comment: Only occasionally have I read a work of history that's in the "can't put down" category. DISTANT MIRROR by Barbara Tuchman, MEN TO MATCH MY MOUNTAINS by Irving Stone, and Shelby Foote's monumental Civil War trilogy come to mind. ALEXANDER OF MACEDON, 356-323 B.C. by Peter Green is now another.
This material first appeared as ALEXANDER THE GREAT in 1970. This particular volume, a revision and expansion of that earlier book, is the second reprint (1991) of the title first published in 1974.
For the sake of background, the author necessarily begins his masterpiece with Alexander's father, Philip of Macedon, whose achievement was to unify Macedonia and coerce the Greek states to the south to join with him in an Hellenic League. But, after Philip is assassinated on page 105, it's all Alexander as he marches his army on a peripatetic route of conquest against the Persian Empire throughout Asia Minor and the Middle East as far as present-day West Pakistan - and then back again. Twenty-five thousand miles - the circumference of the Earth - in eleven years. I kept turning the pages to see what he was going to do next.
In his "Preface to the 1991 Reprint", Green makes it clear that his study of Alexander is a work in progress, and that even this book needs further revision in the light of new information. However, as flawed as the author may consider his ALEXANDER OF MACEDON to be, his masterful distillation of 17 pages worth of ancient and modern sources makes the narrative of Alexander's life sing. Green's prose is crisp and touched with a dry humor, and it never bogs down.
Though Green concludes that Alexander is "perhaps ... the most incomparable general the world has ever seen", he doesn't spare his subject from charges of megalomania and tyranny. But, in a man who never lost a battle and was proclaimed first the son of a god, and then himself a deity, can this be so surprising? Alexander is, in a sense, a tragic figure - one who couldn't see the wisdom in the statement of his subordinate commander, Coenus:
"Sir, if there is one thing above all others a successful man should know, it is when to stop."
ALEXANDER OF MACEDON is replete with a Table of Dates, fourteen maps and battle plans, and a 24-page appendix examining in detail the poorly documented battle on the River Granicus, Alexander's first victory in Asia against the Persian king Darius III.
My only complaint regarding this riveting historical piece is that the author didn't summarize the chaotic dissolution that overtook Alexander's empire immediately after his death. The contrast would have made me appreciate Alexander's achievement all that much more.
Rating: 5
Summary: "Let the Strongest Rule"
Comment: I have to give this book my full recommendation. Green really has done his homework as he puts together the jig-saw puzzle of Alexander's life with brilliant clarity. I LOVED this book. If you want a primer on Alexander in preparation for the two blockbuster Alexander movies coming out in the near future, look no further. Alexander truly had one of the most action-packed lives, and it makes for a fascinating read. My only criticism is that the maps provided are poor quality. I had to get another book on ancient Greece and Persia to place all of the different city-states, nations, and satraps.
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Title: Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox ISBN: 0140088784 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Greco-Persian Wars by Peter Green ISBN: 0520203135 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Campaigns of Alexander (The Penguin Classics, L253) by Arrian, Flavius Arrianus, Aubrey De Selincourt ISBN: 0140442537 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1976 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The History of Alexander (Penguin Classics) by Quintus Curtius Rufus, John Yardley, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Waldemar Heckel ISBN: 0140444122 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1984 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Nature of Alexander by Mary Renault ISBN: 039473825X Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 November, 1979 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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