The Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History [Paperback]

D. Brendan Nagle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1995

This comprehensive volume offers fascinating analysis of the social and cultural climates of the Ancient Middle East, Greece, and Rome. Providing balanced treatment of the political, institutional, and military history for each civilization, it examines the various societal forms characteristic of the ancient world, especially the unique relationship between society and the state that characterized the social order of antiquity. Detailed descriptions of the highly integrated world of the classical period are given, with special emphasis on culture, social structures, moral values, and political processes. The Ancient World also follows the transformations and changes experienced by societies of the ancient world, including the emergence of Hellenistic culture from classical culture, the transformation of the Republic, and the transition from classical to Christian society. What's more, the Third Edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect the latest in scholarship.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

In Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History, Third Edition, Nagle examines the distinctive forms society took in the ancient world, focusing on the unusual relationship that characterized the social order of antiquity--society and the state.

From the Back Cover

Key Benefit: Nagle examines the distinctive forms society took in the ancient world, focusing on the unusual relationship that characterized the social order of antiquity—society and the state. Key Topics: The text provides detailed descriptions of the integrated world of the classical period, both the Athenian Democracy and the Roman Republic, the radically altered world of the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire, and the new society that laid the foundation for the modern world toward the end of antiquity.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall College Div; 3rd edition (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0133108066
• ISBN-13: 978-0133108064
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,059,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A concise yet thorough history of the Ancient Mediterranean, March 15, 2003

By 

Brigette Russell (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History (5th Edition) (Paperback)

I have used this textbook, along with the companion volume of primary source readings, in teaching a freshman level university course on the ancient world, and found both books to be excellent. _The Ancient World_ is written in a style that is accessible to college students while still preserving the complexities that by necessity characterize historical writing. In addition to covering traditional political and military history, Nagle's text includes substantive discussions of social, cultural, and intellectual history.

Having read the previous reviewer's comments, I must disagree about the relative weight given to the different civilizations covered. Every textbook on the ancient world allocates more space to the Greco-Roman world than to the Ancient Near East, and for valid reasons. First, there is a far larger amount of primary source material, both literary and archaeological, on Greece and Rome, with the result very simply we know more about these cultures than about the Ancient Near East. Secondly, part of the function of an introductory history such as this is to familiarize students with the civilizations that have had an impact on our own culture, and for better or worse, more of our Western, and American, history is rooted in the Greco-Roman world than in the Near East. Including China and India in this text would make it another sort of book altogether, a *world* history rather than what it is, a history of the ancient Mediterranean world. As such, it succeeds admirably.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction, November 9, 2003

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events3 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History (5th Edition) (Paperback)

Nagle provides us with an interesting and highly readable work on those "ancient" cultures from which "western" and Anglo-American civilization originated.

Part One, dealing with Mesopotamia, Egypt, early Asia Minor (largely dealing with the Hittites) and the sprawling Persian Empire, sets the stage for the rise of the Greco-Roman world.

Part Two deals with the early origins of the Greeks, including the Minoans and Myceneans, the conquests of Alexander and the rise of the Hellenistic period. Unfortunately, the section on classical Athens, by far the most important period in Greek history as far as it relates to the development of Western thought and philosophy is a fairly small section - although still quite enlightening and descriptive.

Part Three takes us from the Etruscan period (with its important influence on Rome) through the Republican period, the Punic Wars and the fall of Carthage, the Empire, the rise of Byzantium and the "fall" of Rome.

The Ancient civilizations of China, India, Kush and Axum had far less direct impact on the development of Western civilization than did Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia or Greece and Rome; therefore, they were not included in this work. Similarly, Ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were much further back in time (3000 years passed between the time of the rise of Sumerian cities or the unification of Egypt and the reign of the first Roman Emperor while only 2000 years have pass since the reign of Augustus). Since Greece and Rome not only transferred ancient knowledge and culture but also added so much more to it, the book rightly focuses most on those two cultures.

The whole is a lively and worthwhile introduction to the classical origins of modern Western culture.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nagle : The Ancient World (5th edition), July 15, 2009

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Chester Bean - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History (5th Edition) (Paperback)

If you are taking Greek and Roman history, or any ancient history class for that matter, and your syllabus requires this book,don't get the newest edition(7th at the time of this review)unless you want to pay extra dollars
for very limited changes.I used the 5th edition, which cost me less than 10 dollars, compared it to a classmate who had paid over 100$ for a new edition in the school bookstore, and there were no changes that i could notice, except there were different photos, and the topics were on different pages, but the information was the same.Also i was able to obtain an A in the course.