The Oxford History of the Greek and Hellenistic World, John Boardman et. al

I picked up, <i>The Oxford History of the Greek and Hellenistic World</i>, edited by John Boardman, et. al in a roundabout way. In reading about the Founding Fathers I was impressed by how heavily they were influenced by the classics. Being educated in public school I really knew very little about classical Greece or Rome. I decided to try and remedy the situation and read some of the classics — in English of course.

I started with Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War in a Penguin Classics edition. (I'll eventually post a review).  As I started reading, I realized that I don't even know enough about ancient Mediterranean geography to begin to follow Thucydides.

This book is the beginning of a journey to understand the Greeks.

This book is not quite what I expected. I was looking for a chronology of Greek history. Instead this book is broken down into a series of essays by noted historians on topics in Greek history. For example, there are essays on philosophy, drama, myth, Homer  and other topics. There are also chronological essays on periods in Greek history, the classical period, the Hellenistic period, etc.

So much of our Western Cultural condition comes from Greece  that I find learning more about them — I discover more about us.

   

The Oxford History of the Greek and Hellenistic World gets 3 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

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