Ancient Greece (Living History) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152005161 ISBN 13: 9780152005160

Publisher: Gulliver Books, 1994

Synopsis

A portrait of ancient Greece encompasses Spartan youth, religion, the Olympic Games, early medicine, women's lives, and military history, from the struggle against Persia to the exploits of Alexander the Great.

About this title

Reviews

Grade 6-9-Large and glossy, Ancient Greece begins with a solid overview that places the era in context, but the following chapters, while entertaining, sometimes fail to relay the whole story in enough depth for the intended age group. A prime example is found in the section on Alexander the Great. Readers are first told that "no matter where they were from, the soldiers admired him and willingly called him Alexander the Great," Three paragraphs later "the troops refuse to go any farther, and the army turned back." The intervening years-thousands of miles of marching and hardship-are neither mentioned nor shown on a map. Clare also alludes to the fact that slaves could save and buy their freedom, but never explains how they were able to get the money to accomplish this. While the information is attractively laid out, with many striking full-color illustrations, some photographs of costumed actors are so artificially posed that they resemble a low-budget mail-order catalog. This book falls short when compared to existing material, especially Don Nardo's Ancient Greece (Lucent, 1994) which never skimps on details. Olivia Coolidge's Golden Days of Greece (HarperCollins, 1968) and Christopher Fagg's Ancient Greece (Watts, 1979; o.p.) need not be replaced by this entry.
Anita Palladino, Finkelstein Memorial Library, Spring Valley, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gulliver Books
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152005161
• ISBN 13: 9780152005160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 64
• Editor: Clare John D.