Reviews for History of the Ancient World - Chester G. Starr - Hardcover - 3rd ed

The average rating for History of the Ancient World - Chester G. Starr - Hardcover - 3rd ed based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-31 00:00:00 Katie Isra This was so vast and incredible. I will try to organize my thoughts and maybe review later. But all I can say for now is: we are one race of human beings. We all have beauty, savagery and triumph inside us. No peoples have had the monopoly on war or murder. Throughout history, the torch of ignorance has passed from hand to hand. From tribe to tribe, then from nation to nation. And the most important thing I come away with after reading this, is the idea that humans have exhanged and traded since the start. We have always stolen or imitated what we admired in others. From religion to dress, from philosophies to science, foods and dance, thoughts and tools, spices and alphabets--all of it--was just one continuous flow. That flow is so appeasing and beautiful and I will let it carry me on in love and respect for who we all are. If more people read books on the ancient world, this dominant white point of view would be adjusted. White people were once the barbarians. The backward ones. Empires rise and fall. And because we only live about 80 years, we all lack perspective! Humanity is a story and we have yet to write the final chapters.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-05-21 00:00:00 Donald Black Jr. This is a good overview of the ancient world focusing on the Mediterranean with less information on ancient Persia and China. It's hard to condense a couple thousand years into a few hundred pages and the book does its best to not be too superficial in its treatment. I honestly don't know how it could be better. It reflects an older trend of more objective history, one that doesn't try to attribute motivations to peoples that don't necessarily share the same values as the rest of us today do. It's worth the read and having in a home library as an overview book.