A History of the Ancient World Review

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(More customer reviews)This book offers an oversight to the basic developments in history: from the first appearances of human life, then culture, and then cities and societies. It gives an occasional glance to the east, but it's emphasis is tracing the development of Greek and Roman civilization. It is useful in its broadness, but potentially misleading by the same token. For the general reader, I would say Starr offers a decent rough comparison between different societies and epochs; thus enabling some concept of what made the Romans, the Greeks, etc different from the rest of the world.
Having been a graduate student in history, I must say that this book is a major relief. In Chester Starr, one will not find a paranoid historian, obsessed with political correctness and bent on thrashing Western history. He gives the Greeks and the Romans fair praise and criticism while not neglecting that these societies did not represent all people's of the earth. (Although, he suggests that the Greeks were devoid of superstition and the belief in magic, which I find hard to believe.) Global history is such a politically heated argument these days, that I would recomend Starr as the most qualified and balanced scholar for the average reader. Today, Starr is branded as Whigish and probably Eurocentrist, which is a shame for our intellectual conditions.

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In a long and distinguished career, Chester Starr has written on topics ranging from early man, to the early Athenian democracy, to the role of sea power in the classical world. And one of his finest works--the product of his broad interests and expertise--has been A History of the Ancient World, long a standard work on the distant past.Now this landmark book is available in a new edition, offering a informative account of early history from the rise of the first cities to the fall of the Roman Empire.This richly illustrated new edition deftly explores the broad expanse of early human history.Though Greece and Rome occupy center stage, Starr also surveys the cities and empires of Mesopotamia, India from the early Indus civilization to the Gupta state, and China from the Hsia dynasty to the Han empire.In this new edition, he has incorporated the latest research into his lucid and informative narrative, reworking virtually every chapter to bring the work completely up-to-date.He has revised his discussions of early humankind to account for the most recent findings; he presents a new view of the Jewish revolt against Rome led by Bar Kochba; and he has thoroughly updated the bibliographies. In addition, his account of the end of the Roman Empire has been rewritten in light of the most recent thinking by classical historians.Numerous maps and illustrations, carefully composed and selected, highlight the text.And throughout, Starr clearly expresses the complexities of ancient history in lively, engaging prose, making the finest scholarship accessible to the nonspecialist.When A History of the Ancient World appeared in earlier editions, The Philadelphia Inquirer hailed it as "an excellent one-volume history" and "fascinating reading." And The Classical Journal wrote, "In scope, accuracy, and soundness of judgment this is one of the best general ancient histories." This completely updated Fourth Edition will continue to provide one of the most distinguished and comprehensive one-volume introductions to the ancient past available today.

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