Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Over the last few years I have gotten interested in the sources of the ideas of our current world. For instance, when reading about Jefferson, Adams and people that founded the US I find they are fluent in Latin and Greek and read the classics extensively.
I have read the Histories, the Pelloponesian Wars, much of Plutarch and survey books I could find and though I found the stories interesting I have been groping for some context. I felt like one of the blind men and the elephant, only apprehending the little piece I was in contact with and not having any idea what a whole elephant is like.
I came across this book by looking through ...(this very place) and it looked like it would give me an overall structure. The book succeeded beyond my expectations. Starting with Egypt and ending with the Byzantine Empire it covers the myriad civilizations around the Mediterranean during that period. It puts Solon and Dracon into their context. It explains how the Etruscians related to the Greek civilization, and then to Roman. It discusses the Phoenecians, the Latins, the Gauls, the Celts and all the various people that interacted with the Romans as their empire expanded and then the Germans, Huns and other that became important as their empire declined.
Much of what we know about the ancient world is relatively new because excavations are ongoing and techniques are improving. Besides that our thinking aout the ancient world is evolving as well. This book trys to understand the period it covers not just from the point of view of the wealthy, literate folks that wrote the classics, but from the point of view of craftsmen, farmers and slaves as well.
This is definately the book I had been looking for to get me started learning about the influence the past has had on the present. I may not know yet what the elephant of ancient history smells like because I have not been that close, but I have a pretty good idea what it looks like thanks to this book.
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