Customer Reviews

Democracy and Classical Greece: Revised Edition (Series II: Adams Family Correspondence)

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This book could be much better than it is. It contains many details about ancient Greece of the classical period taken from the literature (quotes from classic sources are in most cases interesting and properly chosen) and also archaeological sources. But style of this book is horribly dry, what makes this book even boring.

I have been interested in history since I was young. As a boy, I heard so much about things in the Bible, finding out about things that were going on at the same time in part of the world that was also influenced by Egypt without having been slaves there, etc., I actually became more interested in philosophy than in the political structures of those times. Those who think they already know how to spell might struggle to get used to Sokrates and maps that have cities with different spellings than in the text: Corinth in the index shows up as Korinth on maps 1, 2 and 3, etc. Athens and Sparta played large roles in Greece, but Syracuse, the Carthaginians, and local groups struggled to control cities in Sicily and Southern Italy that are shown on map 4. The second edition, with a chapter that includes many speeches from the court proceedings in Athens, helps to show how court speeches depend on points of view that would be more likely among millionaires and billionaires now, particularly those who tend to be the purest of bastards, than among the lowly slaves that were captured when some cities were wiped out. Democracy sprang up in Greece occasionally, but that is only a small part of what this book is about, and modern life seems to be similarly demented for those whose intellectual viewpoints know a number of wide stances, etc.

entirely satisfied with the service: the book arrived on time and in perfect condition