Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History - Hardcover

Pomeroy, Sarah B.; Burstein, Stanley M.; Donlan, Walter; Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195097424 ISBN 13: 9780195097429

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Written by four leading authorities on the classical world, here is a new history of ancient Greece that dynamically presents a generation of new scholarship on the birthplace of Western civilization.
Ranging from Greece's first beginnings in the Bronze Age through the tumultuous Hellenistic era dominated by Alexander the Great, this volume offers a truly wide ranging portrait, blending the traditional political and military approach with a more modern accent on social and cultural history. Everything is included here the sweeping philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle, the daily lives of women in Athens, dramatic sea battles in the Aegean, the epic poetry of Homer, the rise of the city state. The book offers illuminating descriptions of Sparta and Athens, recounts the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, evaluates the contributions of notable figures such as Solon, Cleisthenes, Pericles, and Philip II of Macedon, and discusses the remarkable rise of Alexander the Great. Throughout the book, the editors trace the slow evolution of Greek culture, revealing how the early Greeks borrowed from their neighbors, but eventually developed a distinctive culture of their own, marked by astonishing creativity, versatility, and resilience.
Featuring 17 original maps, over 80 photographs, and numerous "document boxes" which highlight a variety of primary source material, this book provides an account of the Greek world that is thoughtful and sophisticated while remaining accessible to the nonscholar. A dynamic collaboration between four renowned scholars Sarah Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts it is the definitive portrait of the fountainhead of Western philosophy, literature, science, and art.

About this title

About the Author:

Sarah Pomeroy is Professor of Classics at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Stanley M. Burstein is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at California State University, Los Angeles. Walter Donlan is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Irvine. Jennifer Tolbert Roberts is Professor of Classics and History at the City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center.

From Kirkus Reviews:

From Pomeroy (Classics/Hunter Coll.), Stanley M. Burstein (History/Calif. State U niv., Los Angeles), Walter Donlan (Classics/Univ. of Calif., Irvine), and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts (Classics/City Coll. of New York), a comprehensive narrative history that emphasizes the ``astonishing creativity, versatility, and resilience'' of the culture shaped by the ancient Greeks. A poor, backward people occupying barely cultivable land on the periphery of the Mediterranean world, the Bronze Age Hellenes or Greeks (c. 30001150 b.c.) seem in retrospect an unlikely bet to become the progenitors of a great world civilization. While Bronze Age Greece eventually developed a distinctive culture and power base at Mycenae (c. 16001100 b.c. ), it derived most of its industrial skills from its more highly developed neighbors around the Mediterranean basin. And beginning around 1150 b.c., the authors speculate, a mysterious wave of invaders from the north wiped out the brilliant Mycenaean civilization, reducing Greek society to a culturally primitive ``dark age'' until around 750 b.c. The authors' account treats aspects of Greek life for which primary sources are sparsethe role of women, for instancebut it doesnt neglect the amazing political, artistic, architectural, philosophical, and literary achievements of classical Athens and other cities. The authors detail the development of Athens and Sparta, the creative tensions between them that helped defend Greece from Persian invasion, the ruinous wars that vitiated the Greek polis or city-state, and the extensive colonization (by the city-states) and conquest (by Alexander the Great) that spread Greek civilization from modem France to what is now Pakistan. While the Hellenistic kingdoms that resulted from the Alexandrian conquest were brutally absorbed into the Roman super-state, the cultural legacy of Greece remained pervasively influential in the Roman world and exerted a profound effect on the rise of Christianity. An accessible and well-balanced introduction to the culture and history of ancient Greece, useful for both student and general reader. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0195097424
• ISBN 13: 9780195097429
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 544