Customer Reviews

The Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I also have used this book, along with the primary source companion, in the classroom. I found these texts to work very well in an introductory setting. While this book is organized into a rough chronological order, it offers students much more than a bland re-iteration of major historical persons and events. This text provides a comprehensive look at how social, cultural, military and political institutions worked together to build and drive ancient societies. Somewhat counter-intuitively, by focusing on societal institutions rather than the "Great Men of History", this work highlights how the often overlooked common folk of the ancient world (both men and women) contributed to the creation and continuation of their own societies.
Another major contribution of this text is Nagle's challenge to his readers to recognize not only how modern people and societies are similar to the ancient world, but more importantly, how we are different. By pointing out these differences, Nagle encourages students to explore how our unfounded familiarity with the past has often distorted our understanding of the ancient world. I believe this is not only an important history lesson for students - but a life lesson as well.
Finally, I must concur with the reviewer Brigette's explanation that the weight given to the Greco-Roman world in this book is determined by source availability as well as by the continuing impact of the Greco-Roman world on our own society today. Moreover, practically speaking, in order to maintain the tricky balance of breadth and depth, essential to any textbook, one must set parameters. It seems unreasonable to fault Nagle for choosing to focus on the relatively self-enclosed world of the Ancient Middle East, Egypt, Greece and Rome. I would recommend this book highly to anyone preparing to teach an introductory ancient history class at the college or high school level.

This book is easy to read and it covers all the topics about Ancient cultures that you will ever need. I am really enjoying it.

I'm using it as an adjunct to a classic history textbook. It provides more detail, more cultural history, more "personality" than a typical textbook. This is for AP World History course -- the book does a nice job of providing information on topics that exam cares about, such as the changing role of women. To me, the book does a nice job of walking the line between "a general history text of interest to an average (non-academic) reader" and "a book for a history course." It's fairly fun to read while remaining comprehensive and rigorous. To be honest, I doubt many will read it just for fun, but for a required text, it's engaging.

As the title correctly indicates, a good amount of the book has to do with cultural elements, such as plays, philosophy and so on. Again, I enjoy this, but if you just want to know who conquered whom when, well, stick with the textbook. I also like the heavy use of primary documents in this text.

Please note that the 1-star review for this book has to do with someone who takes the Bible literally.

i bought this book very cheap and as used. The book was in perfect condition like new. Very happy with everything.

Nagle gives a thoughtful exposition of ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East. Unlike freshman level texts, there is not a splurging of colour illustrations and headlines. There is a fair amount of diagrams, in black and white. But the text and the ideas therein clearly dominate.

We see the basic workings of Athens. The daily life and also how their government functioned. More generally, the culture of the Hellenes is described. It is from here that much of European civilisation derives. Of course, the Roman Empire is scarcely ignored. From the early Latin League to the Republic and thence the Empire.

What is also pleasing about the book is how it does not portray those cultures as static. Both were dynamic creatures, evolving under many influences, including political and religious.

This is a revision, a very expensive revision, of Nagle's earlier book on the ancient world. Finding a single book that does a decent job of discussing several civilizations is difficult and Nagle's revision does a better job than the last four versions. The book has four division: ancient Near East, Greek world, and Roman world. Saddly the book is really focused on the Greek and Roman worlds and pathetic 87 pages looks at the variety of cultures in the Near East. By the way, neither India, China, or a few other civilization about as ancient as the Near East, Greece or Rome or presented. However, what is include is well-written and decently organized, primary sources and images supplement the information well.

After reading the excellent reviews about this book, "The Ancient World," I was very excited to receive a copy to start reading. Unfortunately as I read the book I noticed that some dates were in conflict with each other. On one page a date was given concerning a certain matter, but then on the very next page a differnt date would be given resulting in conflicting information. This happened more than once in his book.

Also when the author wrote about the historical events of the Bible the author's information is incorrect. He states that during the time of King David the Bible was first written - stating that Genesis and other books were first authored and written during King David's time. Moses is the author of the first five books of the Old Testament; he wrote those books during the time of the Exodus when he was in leadership. There are many things the author has written that are in conflict with the Old Testament of the Bible. Thus, I threw out my copy of this book since I consider it a piece of trash.

If there was a time under King David that the Bible was compiled, he should not have stated that that was the first and only time the Bible was ever written. The author's Bible history is dramatically incorrect and he appears to be stating that there is no differnce between idols, false gods, and the one and only true God, Jesus Christ.

My final comment, I do not believe the people who wrote the good reviews actually read the book, since how can it be that they missed such obvious mistakes?

Signed,

Very dissatisfied.