Reviews for The Rise of the Greeks

The average rating for The Rise of the Greeks based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-11-08 00:00:00 Louis Prevost Before the classical era of Western civilization, say 1500 BCE to 400 BCE, the people in what would later become the Greek world were forming city-states, developing new cultures, and laying the political groudwork for the classical era itself. Before 1500 BCE major civilizations did exist, the Minoan and Phonecian in particular. These sea-going powers established far flung colonies and explored the entire known world, from the Black Sea to the Atlantic coast of Spain. But there was a major collapse in about 1500 BCE. This leaves a very important millenia to explain. The Rise of the Greeks is a very detailed survey of the cultural, architectural, linguistic, political, and military, changes that laid the groundwork for what we think of as the golden age of Greece. The material is organized geographically, because there were no coherent remaining civilizations after the great collapse. The story is one of how these civilizations, such as those of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Miletus, Sicily, and so on, arose from such amorphous beginnings. The book contains considerable detail about the development of architectural and decorative styles. This spread of culture travelled from the east (Persia, Media, and Mesopotamia) to key central city-states such as Athens and Corinth. From there, styles and techniques spread across the Mediterranean via trade and colonization, like fireworks launching from a few missiles exploding into shining points of light. During this time, coinage was developed, making it possible for trade to replace piracy and gift exchanges as a form of commerce. This is when more sophisticated ship designs arose, to transport large shipments of goods and colonists throughout the known world. This was when the Greeks developed a sense of commonality, bound by language, trade, and tradition. And of course, this was the beginning of divisions that remained until the Hellenistic period. The text is supported by extensive footnotes from original and secondary sources as well as architectural finds. A set of black and white plates illustrate highlights and tie the story to the modern world by showing “recent” photographs of ancient sites. The text can become tedious, since it contains long lists of names of people and places. For this reason, it works well as a reference book. But the only way to appreciate the grand sweep of history itself is to muddle through the tedious bits. It definitely helps to know something about classical Greece, so you can have those “Ah! So THAT’S where THAT came from!” experiences. But be warned. The book was published in 1988. So what it describes as the “best current scholarship” is, well, pretty old. I’m sure much has been discovered in the last four decades. I would love, love, love to read a version of this history taking advantage of todays “best current scholarship”. (If you know of such a book, please let me know!) This is one of those books for which a single rating is impossible. If you are a history geek and particularly fond of Greek civilization (like me), it rates five stars. Otherwise, you probably want to skip it altogether. My rating is an average of five and zero stars, making my stars totally worthless. Sorry.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-09-17 00:00:00 Barry Melnyk Technically, I'm not finished with this book but I'm on a "reviewing roll" right now and I had no intention of doing an in-depth analysis of the book so I feel justified in warning potential readers: "Warning" is the wrong word - There's nothing wrong with this book. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get a basic idea about the politics and culture of Greek society before the Persian Wars, before Athens and Sparta became the Americans and the Soviets of the Ancient World and drowned out all the other voices. Michael Grant is brilliant at clearly elucidating ancient history for the general reader and I would always recommend him as a launching point for further exploration. In fact, this book has turned out to be more interesting than I could have hoped as it fills in a largely empty spot in my knowledge of Greek history. You get an idea of the contributions made to Hellenic culture by all those other city-states that dotted the Mediterranean littoral (and extending into the Black Sea), and the interactions between the Greeks and their neighbors (in a decidedly more balanced manner than e.g. Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization). It's also fun to read this in conjunction with Robert Grave's notes to The Greek Myths.