Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Have sword and spear, will travel, October 11, 2003
Only occasionally have I read a work of history that's in the "can't put down" category. DISTANT MIRROR by Barbara Tuchman, MEN TO MATCH MY MOUNTAINS by Irving Stone, and Shelby Foote's monumental Civil War trilogy come to mind. ALEXANDER OF MACEDON, 356-323 B.C. by Peter Green is now another.This material first appeared as ALEXANDER THE GREAT in 1970. This particular volume, a revision and expansion of that earlier book, is the second reprint (1991) of the title first published in 1974. For the sake of background, the author necessarily begins his masterpiece with Alexander's father, Philip of Macedon, whose achievement was to unify Macedonia and coerce the Greek states to the south to join with him in an Hellenic League. But, after Philip is assassinated on page 105, it's all Alexander as he marches his army on a peripatetic route of conquest against the Persian Empire throughout Asia Minor and the Middle East as far as present-day West Pakistan - and then back again. Twenty-five thousand miles - the circumference of the Earth - in eleven years. I kept turning the pages to see what he was going to do next. In his "Preface to the 1991 Reprint", Green makes it clear that his study of Alexander is a work in progress, and that even this book needs further revision in the light of new information. However, as flawed as the author may consider his ALEXANDER OF MACEDON to be, his masterful distillation of 17 pages worth of ancient and modern sources makes the narrative of Alexander's life sing. Green's prose is crisp and touched with a dry humor, and it never bogs down. Though Green concludes that Alexander is "perhaps ... the most incomparable general the world has ever seen", he doesn't spare his subject from charges of megalomania and tyranny. But, in a man who never lost a battle and was proclaimed first the son of a god, and then himself a deity, can this be so surprising? Alexander is, in a sense, a tragic figure - one who couldn't see the wisdom in the statement of his subordinate commander, Coenus: "Sir, if there is one thing above all others a successful man should know, it is when to stop." ALEXANDER OF MACEDON is replete with a Table of Dates, fourteen maps and battle plans, and a 24-page appendix examining in detail the poorly documented battle on the River Granicus, Alexander's first victory in Asia against the Persian king Darius III. My only complaint regarding this riveting historical piece is that the author didn't summarize the chaotic dissolution that overtook Alexander's empire immediately after his death. The contrast would have made me appreciate Alexander's achievement all that much more.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent work of biography and history, December 3, 1999
This is a truly excellent biography of a near-mythical figure. First of all, this book provides a thorough review of the known history of Alexander the Great - I have no idea how someone could consider this book "fictional," as one reviewer did. What's most impressive is how Green insists on treating Alexander as a human being. An exceptional person, but still a person, motivated by human passions and concerns. Most ancient history treats its subjects like the stone statues seen in museums. But we can't forget that there were people behind the marble, and they acted like, well, people. Alexander may have considered himself chosen by the gods - and by the end, even divine himself - but Green isn't buying it. At every turn, Green insists on interpreting Alexander's actions just as he might interpret a leader's actions today. Green weighs the poltical, military, family and psychological factors that affected Alexander's decisions, and leaves divine will out of it. Some readers may be put off by Green's demythologizing. I think that Green revitalizes Alexander by restoring humanity to his myth.
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63 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Clay-Footed Alexander of Macedon, February 14, 2002
I grew up in the age of an idealized Alexander. First was the Robert Rossen film starring Richard Burton. It was 46 years ago, and though I dont remember much detail I do remember Alexander cutting through the Gordian Knot, his affection for the warhorse Bucephalus, and the deaths of Hephaestion, and Alexander his soldiers walking past his death bed. I was struck by Alexanders loyalty, and his emotional depth. Next came a voracious reading (and later re-readings) of Mary Renaults romantic trilogy. The brave son, the bold warrior, the loyal friend founder of cities, lover of women and men, etc., etc; heady stuff for a boy entering adolescence. And though my intellectual interest in Alexander waned, his life as reflected in those works marked me. Not too long ago I read The Soul of Battle by Victor David Hanson and came to learn that not everyone held Alexander in the same esteem. I think Hanson may have even called him a butcher. It finally dawned on me, of course, world conquest is not an act of loving kindness. A man could not be responsible for that much death and destruction and not be a brute. I figured I had to read something other than fiction to get a more accurate accounting of my boyhood hero. The Amazon.com site ran a review of Alexander of Macedon that caught my eye with the claim that Peter Greens biography was one of the finest. I was immediately pleased with the title, Alexander of Macedon rather than the expected, Alexander the Great. The book is not a difficult read, in fact, for history its often quite breezy. The Alexander portrayed is no less a wonder than I always thought, but much more a human. Alexanders greatness, according to Mr. Green, was somewhat erratic, as he could be both great and petty but not in equal measures. The pleasures of slaughter, rape, and plunder were much closer to Alexanders soul than the pleasures of the palace, or the intellectual pleasure of bantering with philosophers. Alexander was an intriguer from childhood, with as great a genius for self-promotion and manipulation as for war; and as great a thirst for alcohol as conquest. Mr. Green has obviously plumbed the sources. His book opens the worlds of Macedonia, Greece, and Persia. He gives us a supporting cast equal to the times, and, finally, Mr. Green gives us a life, as short as it may have been. Alexander died at 33, and his empire went quickly into collapse.
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