Ancient Greece is famous for its history, literature, architecture, philosophy the list goes on! Here you will find a basic introduction to this fascinating civilization.
Table of contents
- What is Kobo Super Points?
- Join Kobo & start eReading today
- Reward Yourself
- The Ancient Greeks for Dummies by Stephen J. Batchelor
The Ancient Greeks For Dummies.
Request permission to reuse content from this site. Added to Your Shopping Cart. Description The civilisation of the Ancient Greeks has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science and arts of Western culture.
As well as instigating itself as the birthplace of the Olympics, Ancient Greece is famous for its literature, philosophy, mythology and the beautiful architecture- to which thousands of tourists flock every year. About the author Steve Batchelor is a lecturer in Classics at Richmond College and has been teaching ancient history for 10 years. He writes reviews for History Today and Current Archaeology. Permissions Request permission to reuse content from this site.
What is Kobo Super Points?
Table of contents Introduction. Travelling Back in Time. When, Where, What, Who? Meeting the Ancient Greeks.
Join Kobo & start eReading today
The Minoans and Mycenaeans. Governing by Kings, Tyrants, and Eventually Democrats. The Rise and Fall of Empires.
Athens and Empire Building. Dealing with the Neighbours from Hell: The End of Classical Greece. Rising Quickly to the Top: Crowning the Undefeated Champion of the World: Living a Greek Life.
It is the latter that dominates The British Museum Concise Introduction to Ancient Greece, supported by the sort of sumptuous illustrations one expects of a British Museum publication. Coverage is good — with chapters on the Bronze Age, the Archaic Age, the polis city-state , the oikos household , religion, festivals, colonisation, and the Hellenistic Age — and the book certainly has its uses.
Reward Yourself
But format and style are sometimes a little uninspired for the general reader. To start the book with a chapter on the history of antiquarian scholarship entitled Rediscovering ancient Greece is not ideal.
- THE LORD OF MISRULE: A POETIC AND PROSE MEMOIR OF OLD NEW ORLEANS!
- The Ancient Greeks For Dummies;
- Then To Now.
The chapter on colonisation, for example, looks at Greek settlement at all four points of the compass, but provides no analysis of the dynamics of Greek expansion in general terms. For an introductory volume, there is too much description and not enough interpretation; at the end, we still do not know what powered this extraordinary civilisation. A book like this might have been written by a jobbing hack and filled with howlers.
The Ancient Greeks for Dummies by Stephen J. Batchelor
Instead, though Batchelor is a new author, the text reveals abundant evidence of deep and thoughtful scholarship. No doubt it helps that he has been teaching ancient history and classical civilisation to adult education students for years, leaving him refreshingly free of academic stuffiness. We may be hearing more of him. This article is an extract from the full article published in World Archaeology Issue Click here to subscribe. Notify me of follow-up comments by email.