Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History

Clearly written, well-organized information, with interesting illustrations, combine to make a really good textbook. No wonder the professor chose this one!

Wow, what a masterpiece! I started my self-conducted study of ancient Greek history with a different textbook. A good one but it did not impress me quite as much as this one. Written in a clear and fluent language, covering the whole range of Greece's ancient histoy and enriched with excellent pictures and diagrams, it makes the reading not only highly informative but also pleasant and entertaining, giving both beginners and students in the area a solid foundation for further and more specialised reading. It was sad to read some of the shallow and one-sided comments on here from people who certainly don't have the capability to realize the authors' didactic skill to reach out to a broad spectrum of readers of such a complex, broad and magnificent subject. This text rekindled my passion for the ancient world and gave me a great deal of motivation to pursue further reading on other aspects of ancient Hellas such as Religion, Politics, Mythology and so forth. If you're looking for a solid foundation and inspiration, I strongly recommend this book. Hail Pallas Athena!

Luckily, this was the first book I ever read about Ancient Greece and I feel very fortuneate about it. Book is very comprehensive in many ways, and it is both extremely entertaining as well as informative. There is just about everything you need to know. I had fragments of information that I have gathered through out my life and this book just filled the missing gap. This book did not just lay facts, but had various parables and also had interesting references from many other sources. It want into details of many lives and I learned about Alexander the Great, Plato, about Sparta and contrasting Athens and more. This book is quite long but never boring, and you can read it like any other fiction books. Some topics will interest you more and will lead you to other books. In my case I have bought Plutarch's lives.

A great new addition to the selection of textbooks for introductory classes on ancient Greece. Pomeroy and her co-authors attempt to give the reader as much information about the history and people of ancient Greece that can be fit into a backpack sized book. However, some instructors may disagree with a few interpretations of the events and people but should look at this as an opportunity to give students a different view.

One of the best things about this book is that it's current and up to date on the most recent dicoveries in ancient Greek history. It provides the reader with a clear and organized history of Greece which both the novice and student can appreciate. It also includes great original sources, which are sometimes difficult to come by, and excellent maps. This is a great review for pulling all the facts together.